24 Feb The Unconscious is called the Great Mother

Below ordinary awareness, held within personal and collective layers of the unconscious, there is a psychic reservoir of dormant, forgotten, repressed, and yet revealed images and beliefs. One might imagine the unconscious as a deep, dark caldron containing a mysterious brew with swirling bits of stories, scripts, and symbols that originate from past and present lived experiences, cultural norms and narratives, as well as collective motifs and archetypes. The unconscious is covertly concealed in soma. It threads through the nervous system and permeates bodily tissue and viscera.

Depth psychology is assisted self-study of the unconscious. Some of the keys to understanding the mystery of the unconscious, and the secrets held within, were passed down through imagery and literature from antiquity and beyond. Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, commonly translated as “The Book of the Way,” originating from 4th century B.C.E. China, is a text that has preserved indigenous wisdom on existence and the nature of human consciousness (Mitchell, 1988).

In poet–anthologist, Stephen Mitchell’s (1988) translation of the Tao Te Ching, he defined Lao Tzu’s petitions for wei wu wei, which translated literally means “doing not-doing” (p. vii), but can also mean “nothing is done because the doer has wholeheartedly vanished into the deed” (p. viii). Mitchell offered examples of wei wu wei, which might illustrate the unconscious as an invisible, intrapsychic operating system that, unaware to most people, informs reactions, choices, and behaviors: “The game plays the game; the poem writes the poem; we can’t tell the dancer from the dance” (p. viii).

With Lao Tzu as my guide, I will use the Tao Te Ching as a map as I  descend deeper, into the mysteries of the unconscious and explore its shape, contours, and origin. To do so, I will use the approach of replacing the word Tao with the word Unconscious in the extracted text below:

“The [Unconscious] is like a well:

used but never used up.

It is like the eternal void:

filled with infinite possibilities.

It is hidden but always present.

I don’t know who gave birth to it.

It is older than God.” (Mitchell, 1988, p. 4)

Through the changes I have made above, one can begin to see an apparition of the invisible unconscious as a primordial, inexhaustible fountain that produces infinite and unexpected possibilities. This spring, this source (French), has no known origin.

Reading on in this way, replacing the words Tao and Master with the word Unconscious, the evasive enigma of the unconscious comes further into focus:

“The [Unconscious] doesn’t take sides;

it gives birth to both good and evil.

The [Unconscious] doesn’t take sides;

she welcomes both saints and sinners.

The [Unconscious] is like a bellows:

it is empty yet infinitely capable.

The more you use it, the more it produces;

the more you talk of it, the less you understand.

Hold on to the center.” (Mitchell, 1988, p. 5)

The Tao tells us that dualistic concepts like good versus evil or saints versus sinners are irrelevant to the generative Womb of Life. The Font of Consciousness gives birth to all that is known and yet known. She is inherently neutral and does not categorize. The more one measures, the further one is from understanding.

“The [Unconscious] is called the Great Mother:

empty yet inexhaustible,

it gives birth to infinite worlds.

It is always present within you.

You can use it any way you want.” (Mitchell, 1988, p. 6)

Psyche is called the Great Mother. She is the void and the source and her world-making womb is constantly laboring to bring the unconscious into consciousness. This is the lifelong developmental process of individuation.

Catherine Brooks, 2023

Photo: Womb Cave in Bulgaria, Catherine Brooks, 2023

 Reference: Mitchell, S. (1988). Tao te ching. Harper & Row.