The Symbol of the Gate – a Jungian perspective
Who are you?” said the Caterpillar.
This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, “I—I hardly know, Sir, just at present—at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed several times since then.”
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Symbols, as products of the unconscious, are contents capable of entering consciousness. They arise spontaneously, cannot be invented and are not the product of conscious intention, as in dreams „which are not invented but which happen to us”. (CW 18/1, par. 432)
From another perspective, the symbol is a reaction of the unconscious to a conscious problem, because it draws attention to an attitude that can resolve the conflict and enrich the personality if correctly understood. It is what in Jungian analysis is called “a unifying symbol”.
An image is a symbol if the attitude of the one who explores it makes it so (through a symbolic attitude) and if it has a symbolic effect on the one who perceives it. A symbol needs consciousness – in order to really be and not to remain in a state of potentiality, but also a certain power of fascination over man.
In “The Red Book”, Jung says that the symbol is the word that rises forcefully from the depths of the Self and is recognized as a symbol because it is foreign to the conscious mind. Jung compares the act of accepting the symbol to the one of opening a door and crossing a threshold. Accepting the existence of the symbol is an open door to a new, previously unknown space.
“Salvation is a long road that leads through many gates. These gates are symbols. Each new gate is at first invisible; indeed, it seems at first that / it must be created, for it exists only if one has dug up the spring’s root, the symbol.” (The Red Book, par. 137/138)
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The gate is a symbol that can accompany the analytic process, in which the analysand goes through different stages of relationship, both with oneself and with the analyst. In the relationship with his or her own interiority, the analysand may feel that he or she is traversing different realms, which over time reveal how they can be traversed. And each realm has its own gate that brings him closer to inner self. During analytic work there are also moments of threshold, of transition, either internally within the patient or within the analytic relationship.
Also, the four stages in the analytic process – confession, elucidation, education, transformation (Samuels, 1990) can be experienced by both the analyst and the analysand as a successive passage through gates that guide the process of individuation. Although the stages may overlap, they are aspects that characterize the analytic process. According to Samuels, confession, as the first stage, is where the analysand tells his story and the difficulties as he sees them, and a sense of relief may occur. Elucidation is the second stage, in which the transferential dynamics are interpreted and is continued by the stage of education in which a heightened level of awareness occurs. While elucidation and education are more concerned with social adaptation, the last stage, transformation, emphasizes the process of individuation (becoming who you are, rather than “adapted”).
Each transitional phase in the individuation process has its own specific challenges and demands for the ego complex. We can think of entering each stage as passing through a gate. When we symbolically pass through a gate, a dynamic valence begins to unfold. We enter a realm where a new condition of the psyche prevails and a new state of consciousness takes over. Crossing a threshold or a gate requires a mobilization of the energy of the Ego. A gate invites us to cross, to make a journey to another stage. When we pass through a gate we pass into another space in which we encounter other parts of ourselves, not only in the inner landscape that reveals itself, but also in the inner characters that appear.
Dreams can be seen as hidden gateways to secret and sacred realms of the human soul. Entering a dream is also like crossing a threshold from the limited conscious world to the dream world of infinite possibilities.
In the book “Enchantment of Gardens. A Psychological Approach”, Ruth Amann carries out a symbolic analysis of the gate – as an element that defends the places of passage from the public to the private sphere, from a familiar interior to a dangerous and risky exterior. The intangible gates in dreams, fairy tales or active imagination mark a transition loaded with meaning from the individual spirit to the vast soul of the world, from one world to another, from one existence to another. This transition carries with it rituals that protect and regulate behavior appropriate for being in such places.
Crossing the stages of ego development entails crossing each threshold of awareness, and the gate symbol is a symbol that can be activated in the process of individuation.
Anca Ghearasămescu
Jungian Psychotherapist, IAAP Router
Ammann, R. (2008). The Enchantment of Gardens. A Psychological Approach. Einsiedeln: Daimon Verlag
Carroll, L., (2015). Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (150th anniversary edition ilustrated by Salvador Dali). New Jersey: Princeton University Press
Jung, C., Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Vol. 18, Princeton University Press, 1976
Jung, C.G. The Red Book. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2009
Samuels, A. (1990). Jung and the Post-Jungians. London, England: Routledge
The Symbol of the Gate – a mythological perspective read here
Symbolic Function in Analyic Psychology read here
