People very often turn to archetypal symbols without understanding what they actually mean.
Some loudly praise Jesus, while others practically fall into psychosis at the thought of Satan.
It is important to understand that an archetype is an empty framework. We ourselves fill it with meanings. And what matters is recognising which meanings we have placed within that archetype.
The archetype of Jesus can be filled with the meaning of universal love, or with that of a judge who condemns every witch. The archetype is the same; the meanings differ.
The archetype of Lucifer can represent destruction, or it can embody the idea of stepping beyond limitations.
The Tower card in Tarot signifies catastrophe to one person and a new beginning to another. What matters is being aware of the meanings with which you fill your life.
Very often, our ideas about archetypes reveal our own problems.
I do not see demons as a source of horror and fear, because I understand their nature and their appearance.
The more negative the image of Satan appears to us, the stronger these patterns are within us.
It is not Satan who is so terrible that he torments us. It is not a curse that is so powerful that it destroys us. Rather, our inner world is so agitated and disturbed that everything is transformed into something negative.
Compare this with neurosis: the cause of an old problem is buried within you. You do not notice it, yet it keeps your psyche under tension around the clock. Ordinary ways of releasing tension do not help. Then even the slightest external action irritates you, and you project the tension outward.
The same applies to the spiritual world. For a person whose soul has been wounded, even God may appear as a despot, while mystical experience can be perceived only through a distorted prism of destruction.
But one cannot comprehend the spiritual without first understanding oneself and several levels of one’s own spiritual life: first the psyche, then the soul. The soul and the psyche are not the same. The psyche is the level of cognitive beliefs; the soul is the level of archetypes. Yet cognitive disturbances also distort how we perceive an archetype.
It is like favourite food: one person finds something incredibly delicious, while another cannot stand it. The same is true of an archetype.
And here is the central point, which not everyone understands: the level of meaning depends directly on the level of our beliefs. The highest spiritual meaning rests upon our physical perception of the world!
When you desecrate someone else’s symbols, you first and foremost desecrate your own soul, because you fail to understand the connections involved.
And so it is with everything.