One of the things I love about Carl Jung is the fact that he was a deep philosophical thinker who examined all aspects of the self when writing about the human experience. As you will see in the quotes below, Jung was clear on the notion that we are spiritual beings, and that having a spiritual relationship with oneself truly helps us to understand the deeper aspects of who we are.

To some, this idea translates to religion — to finding solace in the existence of something greater than yourself — but I feel at times we are challenged to really get to the core of who we are from a personal development point of view, when talking about common religion.

According to www.cgjungpage.org:

“Carl Jung was one of the creators of modern depth psychology, which seeks to facilitate a conversation with the unconscious energies which move through each of us. He contributed many ideas which continue to inform contemporary life: complex, archetype, persona, shadow, anima and animus, personality typology, dream interpretation, individuation, and many other ideas. He had a deep appreciation of our creative life and considered spirituality a central part of the human journey.”

This summation of his life and work connects deeply to what Collective Evolution is all about, and shares much in common with what inspired me to create this platform in the first place. In putting together the quotes in this article, I gained an even deeper appreciation for Jung and his work, as I uncovered the conscious themes that were apparent throughout his teachings. He was clearly a deep thinker with an intimate knowledge of his inner being.

Jung also had an appreciation for astrology which, over the past few years, I’ve begun to understand more and more and see profound value in. I’m not talking about opening your daily paper and reading your generalize horoscope, but the actual art of astrology. Something many of us have never been properly exposed to and thus don’t understand the real meaning of  or value of.

But enough on my own musings — onto the quotes! Here are 20 from Jung that I feel not only serve as an accurate representation of his work, but also provide much to reflect on.

20 Profound Quotes By Carl Jung That Will Help You To Better Understand Yourself

1.”One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light but by making the darkness conscious.”

2. “Don’t hold on to someone who’s leaving, otherwise you won’t meet the one who’s coming.”

3. “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

4. “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”

5. “The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.”

6. “I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.”

7. “Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.”

8. “If you are a gifted person, it doesn’t mean that you gained something. It means you have something to give back.”

9. “Mistakes are, after all, the foundations of truth, and if a man does not know what a thing is, it is at least an increase in knowledge if he knows what it is not.”

10. “Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”

11. “People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own souls.”

12. “Loneliness does not come from having no people around, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible.”

13. “Depression is like a woman in black. If she turns up, don’t shoo her away. Invite her in, offer her a seat, treat her like a guest and listen to what she wants to say.”

14. “A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them.”

15. “Your perception will become clear only when you can look into your soul.”

16. “I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.”

17. “What you resist, persists.”

18. “A dream is a small hidden door in the deepest and most intimate sanctum of the soul, which opens up to that primeval cosmic night that was the soul, long before there was the conscious ego.”

19. “We may think that we fully control ourselves. However, a friend can easily reveal something about us that we have absolutely no idea about.”

20. “Everything about other people that doesn’t satisfy us helps us to better understand ourselves.”

If you’re inspired by what you’ve seen here, you might find Carl Jung’s 4 stages of life interesting. According to Carl Jung, we move through various stages as we progress in life

1. The Athlete
2. The Warrior
3. The Statement
4. The Spirit

These stages have nothing to do with how old you are, what you have achieved or what possessions you have attained and are also not linear. You can actually alternative between these stages throughout life, but they provide an interesting insight into what you’re currently experiencing. Check out his 4 stages of life here.

Sources:

Quotes

 http://www.cgjungpage.org/

It was March 2014 and I was days away from having to get on a plane to fly to New York City to give my TEDx talk. I was nervous because I wasn’t used to public speaking on that sort of stage and to be downright honest, I didn’t want to f*ck it up.

I sought out the help of a friend who introduced me to EFT or ‘tapping,’ a self help technique that can help you immediately reduce the charge of an emotion, pain or feeling that’s draining your energy or making you feel stressed.  I went into the session with her pretty damn nervous and with a pit in my stomach about what I had to do in a few days. Then came the tapping. Within 20 minutes of going through the technique, I was chilled out and no longer nervous.

“How could it have worked so fast?” I thought. Prior to learning this technique, nothing had worked that well to ease my nerves about public speaking, and I have to say I was very happy about it. But was it going to last? Would it all come back when I went on that stage in a couple days?

Leading up to the hours before doing the talk I got nervous again, but not anywhere as bad as I had in the past. I knew I was prepared to give my talk, but I couldn’t help but feel nervous when I saw the stage, the people, the cameras, and knew that shit was about the get REAL.

Back stage I was brought to the final staging room to prepare for my talk. I could hear the man before me who was having his turn addressing the audience. It seemed to make me more nervous, my head was running, filling up with stories of what I feared most. I needed to do something, so I tapped it out.

I stood in front of the mirror in the small staging room and stared at myself. “Do what you just learned, if it worked before it can work now.” I told myself.

So I started tapping, running through the simple and specific technique I had just learned days prior. After about 5 minutes and a few rounds through the technique, I was 90% calmer and much more clear headed. I felt ready to go take on something that I’ve been fearful of for years. By the time I stepped out onto the stage my nerves were at a very manageable point and all went well with the talk.

The Full Details On The Tapping Solution

The reality is, we are typically a product of the experiences and belief systems that have shaped us over our lifetime. Whether we had one experience that threw us into a story and belief that we can’t speak well publicly or whether we were told by someone when we were young that we shouldn’t do it, these sorts of belief systems are rehearsed in our minds over and over, and we create powerful neural pathways and biochemical patterns in our bodies based on those beliefs.

Then what happens is, we allow these strengthened subconscious patterns become energy drains that stress us out, limit our choices and ultimately lessen our capacity to cope with the events of life. Tools like EFT or ‘tapping,’ can help us break those patterns.

As stated by Nick Ortner of ‘The Tapping Solution:’

“When you think about your life, what events, limiting beliefs, or deep-seated emotions do you have that are holding you back? Are you aware of what they are and of how they’re limiting you today? If you do know what they are, are you doing anything to release the grip that they have over your life?”

As we’ve discussed many times in our work, we are extraordinary beings with extraordinary capabilities, only, we have forgotten how to access all of our faculties. We are not stuck or limited to the current belief systems we currently hold, and I believe The Tapping Solution is one of many effective tools I’ve seen to help people step out of these belief systems and into our full potential.

To learn this simple technique, check out Nick Ortner as he shares how and why tapping works, and guides you through how to do it yourself. Watch his powerful video here.

Mercury began another retrograde process on January 30th/31st which will last until Feb 20th/21st. This is when it appears to be moving backwards from our earth based vantage point due to the positioning of the Earth and Mercury in each of their orbits around the Sun. This one is occurring completely in Aquarius.

In the weeks (and especially days) leading up to it, it can already start to feel like a retrograde and some of its themes can get seeded. This happens because Mercury slows down (again from our vantage point) and travels in the part of sky it will be returning to after the retrograde begins. This is known as the ‘pre-shadow’ period which began on January 15th.

If you have read my previous Mercury Retrograde articles, the remainder of this section and the following one are nearly the same. You can skip to the third section and beyond if you don’t want to re-read all the general themes associated with these periods. Those other parts are more specific to this edition of it.

Mercury retrograde is known for the problematic effects it often has on communication technology, transactions, motor vehicles, anything with moving parts, and commuting in general. Some people even get headaches near the beginning of it. We could experience some challenges, misunderstandings, and errors around our communications, numbers/details, and commerce, as well as changes, cancellations, or delays in our schedules.

Sometimes these issues could occur when we are excessively analytical without tuning into our internal guidance. Depending on how we flow with it and other variables, we may not always experience these surface level inconveniences, or they could just be minor irritants.

Mercury Retrograde can also be a good time to revisit or redo tasks, projects, ideas, or anything else that was initiated in the past. It can give us a different perspective or shift in thinking that can help us to approach these things in ways we wouldn’t have done before. This may also be a period of reconnecting with old friends, family, lovers, or others we haven’t seen in a while. When we reconnect with people during a retrograde, it sometimes can help to facilitate a shift in the relationship. In some cases, issues from the past can come up which may need to be hashed out.

The Deeper Purpose of Mercury Retrograde

Ultimately, Mercury Retrograde is a time for us to recalibrate and adjust specific areas of our lives as well as how we apply our minds towards these issues. It is a period in which we may receive important insights and see things in a new light. In most cases, it can be mildly transformational, but in some cases it can facilitate more major transformations depending on how it corresponds to your personal astrological chart.

During and following the retrograde, certain areas of our lives can go through changes or shifts, or we can experience a re-orientation of some sort which influences how we proceed over the coming months or in some cases, it can have a more long-term significance. In the three weeks afterwards, known as the ‘post-shadow’ period, we move forward with some sort of new awareness, adjustment, as well as new ideas and thoughts that have been seeded which will develop and become more defined as time progresses.

Certain things that have come up specifically in the weeks leading up to the start of the retrograde could determine where this energy could play out. It is also possible that there could have been changes or developments at that time which may go through a sorting-out process or shift in dynamics during the actual retrograde and in the two weeks following. There could be unknown variables, either positive or negative, that were either unseen or hadn’t been conceived yet, which may become apparent over the coming month.

The sign(s) and element(s) in which Mercury retrograde travels in shows the energy we are re-orienting ourselves with. More importantly, if you are familiar with your natal astrology chart, then your house(s) or any planetary placements being affected will show more specifically which areas of life you will be experiencing its energy in. For the astrologically literate, it begins at 26’29 degrees of Aquarius and will retrograde back to 11’01 degrees of the same sign before turning forward again.

Occurring In Aquarius, The First of a Series Primarily in Air Signs

Mercury Retrograde always happens in primarily one element for 1-2 years. This is the first of a series that is mainly occurring in Air signs which will last until Fall 2022. The Air element is about intellect, objectivity, the mind, communication, and social aspects of life. This period is about re-aligning ourselves with these qualities if necessary and expressing them in new or revamped ways.

With this retrograde in Aquarius, we may experience or apply re-orientations, adjustments, developments, circumstances, or reflect on themes connected to friends/acquaintances, groups/teams, the collective, humanitarianism, the global community, activism, equality, social networks, the internet, and originality. This sign is about the future as well as the innovation and utilization of all things pertaining to science and technology. Aquarius is also associated with both rationality and idealism. It is about freedom and free-thinking.

Aquarius’ Traditional Ruler Saturn Square Its Modern ‘Ruler’ Uranus

During this retrograde, Aquarius’ traditional ruler Saturn (also in Aquarius) will be in a tense square aspect with its modern ‘ruler’ (or sub-ruler) Uranus in Taurus. This will be strong from February 7th-24th, with it making its exact aspect on the 17th/18th. However, this energy will be a major part of the astrological backdrop throughout this next year as they will be in exact square again in June and next December/January when these energies will peak again.

Personally, after many years of observation and practice, I currently use traditional rulers as the main rulers in my astrological delineation work. However, Uranus definitely represents many qualities of Aquarius that are contradictory to Saturn and therefore it is clearly a representative of that sign as well, yet I see it as different from being a ‘Ruler’.

Uranus represents the freedom seeking, revolutionary, rebelling, progressive, reforming, idealistic, unconventional, technological, inventive, futuristic, and scientific qualities of Aquarius. Saturn represents the seriousness, aloofness, social/communal/collective structures, rational, and fixed/rigid qualities of the sign.

Although Aquarius energy is evolutionary and open minded (reflected by Uranus), it can also be unyielding (reflected by Saturn) when it comes to viewpoints outside of what it has already determined to be truth, fact, or what is best. This is the Aquarian paradox which is something we have been seeing play out collectively in the political landscape.

Outside of the overlapping Aquarian themes mentioned, Saturn is also traditional, conservative, and cautious. It rules commitments, maturity, responsibilities,  limitations, restrictions, the status quo,  and structures in general. It is about patience, practicality, discipline, and boundaries.

This is a period in which Uranus themes (as mentioned) will be at odds with Saturn themes (as mentioned). This can play out as ‘old versus new’, ‘restrictions versus freedom’, ‘the status quo versus revolution’, ‘commitments/responsibilities versus liberation’, ‘elder versus youth’, and so forth. This can also be a time of integrating Saturn and Uranus such as applying new, technological, scientific, or metaphysical approaches to help us with our work. However this energy plays out, it will somehow play a role in the adjustments occurring in our lives (and collectively) reflected by the Mercury retrograde process.

Mercury Retrograde Significant Dates

Below are some of the dates and information for some of the major astrological configurations during this retrograde.

*The dates below are based on the Americas. The further East you are located, you may need to consider it as the next day.

Jan 30th/31st  Mercury retrograde begins at Jan 30th 3:51pm Universal Time

The common Mercury retrograde themes and complications may come up strongly at this time and in recent days leading up to this. You may get some sort of indication of how it may be playing out for you over the next month based on how you feel or what transpires. It’s possible that certain things that happen at this time, which may seem insignificant, can somehow be connected to how this retrograde process will affect you.

Feb 8th/9th  Mercury Retrograde Conjunct the Sun (Inferior Conjunction)

This is the halfway point of Mercury retrograde, known as the ‘inferior conjunction,’ which is when it returns to the Sun. This can be a period of increased insights, and the themes or circumstances pertaining to how this retrograde is affecting you may come up more during this period.

Complications and frustrations can also be stronger at this time depending on your circumstances or how you are applying yourself. This may also be a period of ridding yourself of certain thoughts, ideas, perceptions, old interests, expectations, or other things that are not serving you while the potential for new ones may be seeded.

Feb 9th-11th Mercury Retrograde Square Mars, overlapping with Venus conjunct Jupiter

In some ways, this can be one of the more annoying periods of this retrograde. Conflicts, arguments, irritability, and impatience can occur more easily during this time. We need to be a little extra cautious during this period to minimize the risk of saying things incorrectly or making impulsive decisions that we may regret later.

However, as the aspect between Mercury and Mars separates we will also experience conjunction between Venus and Jupiter (also in Aquarius) which will be strongest on February 10th/11th. This can be expansive, optimistic, fortunate, or educational when it comes to our social life, matters of love, pleasures, finances, creativity, or things pertaining to aesthetics or beauty. However this can also be a time of overindulging or overspending money/resources.

Feb 12th/13th Mercury Retrograde Conjunct Venus

This can be a good time for connecting with others socially as interactions can be pleasant. Considering the retrograde, it can be good for catching up with others that we haven’t connected with in a long time and resolving any issues if there are any. Addressing financial or relationship matters can also come up. In some cases revisiting any creative effort or aesthetic adjustment could make sense as well. Mercury will be in between Venus and Jupiter and therefore some of the Venus conjunct Jupiter themes (mentioned above) may play out as well.

Feb 14th/15th Mercury Retrograde Conjunct Jupiter

This can be a very mind opening period, perhaps lucky and expansive. It can be good for revisiting perspectives, media, or something educational related. Considering the ‘big picture’ is a strong theme now with perhaps a shift in perception or some sort of re-thinking about it. Some people may receive positive news at this time. We may have big ideas but it’s wise to wait until at least 3 days after  the retrograde ends before beginning to really move forward with anything. Mercury will be in between Venus and Jupiter and therefore some of the Venus conjunct Jupiter themes (mentioned in Feb 9th-11th paragraph) may play out as well.

Feb 17th/18th Peak of Saturn Square Uranus (although strong throughout February)

Check “Aquarius’ Traditional Ruler Saturn Square Its Modern Ruler Uranus” section in earlier part of this article.

Feb 20th/21st Mercury Ends Retrograde and Goes Stationary Direct

Mercury will slowly begin to move forward from February 20th/21st onward. The areas of our lives that have been affected by this retrograde will start to become more clear and things will fall into place more easily as we progress into the coming days and weeks. As Mercury gradually picks up speed, we can move forward in the areas of life that have been affected. However, usually the first few days after it ends can still feel like it is retrograde as complications may occur due to Mercury’s stationary position. It’s usually best to wait until at least 3 days afterwards before finalizing decisions, agreements, etc.

Nearly 2 months later, at April 18th/19th and/or in the days following, there may be even more clarity around certain things that have been seeded during this specific retrograde. From there, things may develop further with a better perception, or circumstances may indicate lack of sufficiency, not what was anticipated, or that something needs to change.

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