Friday, June 6, 2008

Carl Gustav Jung



Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) was the creator of a branch of Behavioral Science known as Analytical Psychology. The International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP) was established in 1955 to advance the understanding of Jung's research and theories. The Beatles paid tribute to Jung by including him on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but he has fueled the creative minds of other musicians as well. The Police used Jungian terms like "Synchronicity" and "Ghost in the Machine" in their music.

Jung believed in the duality of the individual. We all have a persona, the part of ourselves that we show others in public. But, we also have a dark side, or shadow that exists in our unconscious. We would prefer that others not see it, (it is often hidden from ourselves) but we all know it is there. Jung was in agreement with Freud that our dark sides have a desire to express themselves. They believed that healthy individuals find constructive outlets where their negative impulses can be expressed in a controlled manner. But while Freud seemed to want to dig up those dark forces so they could be released safely in therapy, Jung suggested that we learn to live with them and find complementary ways to use our light and dark sides in harmony.

It is easy to take a Jungian view of the Beatles personalities. All four were loved by fans all over the world, but sometimes a dark side would appear. John's sharp tongue, creative anger and even occasional violent outbursts were expressions of his dark side. George Harrison could be quite nasty. Even some of his best friends have talked about how cynical he could be. Ringo is often perceived as the lovable clown, but many times he has shown his anger about not being taken seriously.

But Paul McCartney is the one who still keeps his cool and lays on the charm even when reporters are tough on him. The times that he has been accused of losing his temper (and there have been very few) were mild by most standards.


Unlike George who could sometimes be nasty and condescending during interviews, Paul would always allow people to do their jobs. He would always strike up conversations with various crew people. And if you saw him months later, he would be the type to remember your name and ask how your kid was doing. Speaking of kids, Paul was the one who would get down on the floor and play. Paul tells the story of one time when he was playing with Julian Lennon, John asked him, "How do you do that?" With the exception of last year's interview on the Larry King Show, when he made fun of King for referring to Ringo as George, Paul would always let interviewers slide when they got something wrong. [There was one exception in 1964 with interviewer Dave Hull, but some people think that is not the same Paul McCartney]

Because Paul's outside persona is so well crafted and so lovable, the implication is that Paul McCartney has the darkest shadow of all.


Iamaphoney's videos present this Paul McCartney as a phony who is "too good to be true" and because many of us instinctively believe in the tenets of Jungian theory, even those who have not studied it, we are suspicious of people like that. According to author Frieda Fordham, "Superstition holds that the man without a shadow (using the word in its ordinary sense) is the devil himself."

A key concept in Jungian Psychology is the Sanskrit term mandala or magic circle. Many times it is presented as a circle within a square. Often seen in visions, dreams and art, it has spiritual links dating back to the beginning of religious thought. The magic circle is a common feature of art in general, but it has been used extensively by the Beatles, particularly from 1967 until today.



Another magical drum head.


George Harrison had a fondness for this circle and sang, "Life goes round and round in Circles."


In the song "Clean Up Time" John sang, "The Center of the circle will always be our home." "Watching the Wheels" can also be interpreted as relating to mandalas.



The round LP in a square cover is tailor made for magic circle creations. The same is true for the round CD in the square jewel box or digipack. That may be the reason why cassettes and 8-tracks never quite felt like the right media to permanently store music. Jung was so taken by the mandala, that he spent a few years in seclusion drawing them. Every mandala has a central point and it is usually the most significant feature. This is where Christ usually is pictured in Christian mandalas.

Clearly there is a mandala on the cover of Ringo's "Time Takes Time."


Ringo's "Vertical Man" CD contains a traditional looking mandala.


And check out the background on Ringo's cover of "Choose Love."



Iamaphoney has several images of mandalas including this astrological chart, which is one of several in a row appearing in Rotten Apple 50.


The sun is a common central feature in mandalas.


Jojo of Nothing Is Real reported that this shot from the "Back To The Egg" inner sleeve is interior dome of the Chapel of the Shroud in Turin.



Paul sang, "I saw you sitting in the center of the circle."



McCartney in the center of the circle on "Ever Present Past."


Returning to the epicenter, Sgt. Pepper, we have this gem from the picture disc craze of the late 1970s.


This all leads me to believe that the Beatles knew what they were doing when they posed for this picture.


You can find many more examples of magic circles if you look around round look around round...

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good hello,
ANOTHER KILLER POST!
"heckofajob, Tufy!", to paraphrase a REAL evil sonofbitch!

Your pal, Vince.

Tafultong said...

"New Orleans didn’t die of natural causes, she was murdered."

-Dr. John

Anonymous said...

Vince here,
Lived in that city with my wife from '90 to '97, and, from first hand experience I can tell you:
the LANDOWNERS were not interested in beautifying the city...... even THEN!

Anonymous said...

The Roman/Greek coin at 21 seconds into RA50, anyone figured out what coin that is?

I've scoured through 60+ pages of GIS results but haven't seen it.

Tafultong said...

It is slightly distorted in the video, but This Coin might be it.

Anonymous said...

The coins are slightly different, but I do believe that the coin in the video depicts the same person, Valentinian I, who had served under the emperor Julian.

Anonymous said...

and shared his empire with his brother.

Anonymous said...

This was by far your most fascinating post in a long time.
Good work, Tafultong!

Anonymous said...

"Paul Mc Cartney" By Jake Shears . . . . Aka the Scissor Sisters

http://dev.out.com/images/137/jake_shears.jpg

he looks quite like Strawberry fields Paul

Anonymous said...

great post tafultong !
You are great!

that video "from Jesus to Paul" that guy cryhepzero put up several days ago used a song that said
"my bright is too sly to hold back all my dark"

the album that song was on was called
The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me


more Synchronicity ! LOL
are you guys all working together?

Anonymous said...

i think they might have known what they were doing too...

Anonymous said...

Yeah, but, "would it be too much,
to ask of THEM,
WHAT THEY'RE DOING,
TO US!"


Back in the '70's, The Residents titled one of their rare performances, "Oh, Mommy! Oh, Daddy! Can't you see it's True! What The Beatles did to Me, "I Love Lucy" did to YOU!"

Vince.

Anonymous said...

Thats awesome Vince.

Anonymous said...

"The Magic Circle" was one of the titles seriously considered by the Beatles for Abbey Road.

Anonymous said...

Bam. Almost finished

Killing the Sacred Ram

Anonymous said...

By "Bam. Almost finished" I mean I have met the Ouroboros

Anonymous said...

What is the hand sign Ringo makes on the "Choose Love" cover? It's not a peace sign or devil horns. Is it 'three'?

Anonymous said...

Vince, here.
Ringo COULD be giving the 'read between the lines' sign. I've head he's not a big fans of 'fans'!

Tafultong said...

Vince wrote:
Ringo COULD be giving the 'read between the lines' sign. I've heard he's not a big fans of 'fans'

No no. Ringo has video updates at www.ringostarr.com and explains things like this. Unfortunately the particular video I was looking for was taken down, so you'll have to take my word for it.

In his video update from October 28, 2004, Ringo started doing three fingers for "Peace AND Love" because, as he put it, "I'm tired of all those terrorists doing this" (referring to the two-finger sign).

By his April 2005 update, he had dropped the three fingers and went back to two. He explained, "I'm back to this you may notice because...that's how it is." See....full disclosure!

I'm one them Ringo fans. I love him and he loves me too. Although I suspect if I bothered him at a restaurant, he'd give me one of them backwards British peace signs.

Anonymous said...

I can never think of the 'backward' peace sign w/o thinking of "The Young Ones"!

Anonymous said...

I've been studying other rock conspiracy theories on the internet for the past few days and there are more than I thought possible.What's more strange Paul being dead or David Bowie actually being an alien?

http://www.xdream.freeserve.co.uk/David%20Bowie/Index.htm

Welcome to the wild fringes of the rock fan.

-Aja

Anonymous said...

Vince, here.
Hey, Aja
Even STRANGER to me is what someone posted on the NOTHING IS REAL forum about Kate Bush. I hadn't thought about her in a long time, and after a overdose of Alex Jones, her songs "Cloudbusting" and "Experiment IV" really DO sound like she knew something!

Anonymous said...

Vince,Kate Bush is on that site too.The message is the aliens are coming and rock stars are preparing the way.

-Aja

Anonymous said...

Good Morning!
Vince, here.

Been hearing good things about to new Paul/Fireman song!
Anybody here heard it?

mojollikins said...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanentize_the_eschaton

http://gaffa.org/faq/faq_gen.html

I love you yeah, yeah, yeah!

"Suddenly my feet are feet of mud.
It all goes slo-mo.
I don't know why I'm crying.
Am I suspended in Gaffa?
Not 'til I'm ready for you, *
Not 'til I'm ready for you hoo hoo-oo-oo *
Can I have it all?"
Suspended in Gaffa- Kate Bush

mojollikins said...

Also:

http://www.principiadiscordia.com/book/1.php

yeah, yeah, yeah...

Anonymous said...

Fun post as always Taful. And yet, in the way of skepticism, I dare say you could put together Beatle-related patterns of this nature with just about any geometric shape, such as squares, rectangles, triangles, etc., because geometry is the basis of all graphic design, the circle being the most obvious. Given the sheer breadth and scope of Beatle graphics out there, the list is endless. I would also like to point out something about creative types. They, like you and everyone here, read books and know about art and they sometimes incorporate those little facts into their output. So when the Wachowski brothers wrote the Matrix, they incorporated their knowledge of a wide range of topics into the film. Doesn't mean they believe it or even care about virtual reality. JCharles

Anonymous said...

Not to mention those were mostly photos from album and single sleeves which are....y'know....round.

Pablo said...

I agree with the two last anonymous before me.
I was going to write something like that.
It´s just geometry.

Pablo said...

If there´s a circle is a mandala, if there´s a triangle is the eye of god or something. If there´s a cross is the sun, or nazi or jesus, or....
What can we use that is not satanic o similar?

Tafultong said...

pmc27 said...

If there´s a circle is a mandala, if there´s a triangle is the eye of god or something. If there´s a cross is the sun, or nazi or jesus, or....
What can we use that is not satanic o similar?


Right, pmc27, but I think Jung is saying that there is a reason why common shapes are common. They have meaning in our collective unconscious. Why do we see beauty in things like symmetry, often without realizing it? Look at some of the studies of people's perceptions of beauty. Freud is always credited as saying, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar," but are you saying that the work of Jung and people like Joseph Campbell should all be dismissed?

As I said in the post, I do think there is an aesthetic reason why the record album and the compact disc were more important than the eight track and the cassette. I don't expect you to buy into that one, but I hope you will consider the point.

Thanks for taking the time to comment on an older post. Hopefully you will see this and we can continue the dialog at some point.

Pablo said...

Hey tafultong!

I´m trying to keep reading the comments I left.
I wasn´t visiting your blog for a long time so I have to read older posts, hehe.

You are right in what you are saying in some points, but what I mean is: it could be possible that there are mandalas and religious symbols, but not all circles refer to mandalas and not all triangles are the eye of God... you know what I mean? Sometimes it happends that people generalize all the elements calling it CLUES, but, as you and Freud said... sometimes a circle it´s just a circle.

But, see this... if you put ten circles and call it mandalas, maybe 2 are mandalas and 8 are just circles, so yout theory, probably will be wrong.

Sorry if my english isn´t good enough. Hope you understand my point.

see you! (or read you...)