u/lurkerof5

This is my first time reading his work. I’m a few pages into Man and His Symbols and there’s something he’s repeating that I don’t quite understand.

“This evolution [of human consciousness] is far from complete, for large areas of the human mind are still shrouded by darkness.”

“…human consciousness has not yet achieved a reasonable degree of continuity. It is still vulnerable and liable to fragmentation.”

It seems like there are a few (unsubstantiated) assumptions being made here:

-That, because we’ve yet to understand parts of the psyche, human consciousness is “incomplete”

-That consciousness CAN be complete, and that evolution is a process from complete unconsciousness to complete consciousness

-That a “complete” consciousness would be completely unified/invulnerable (he cites depression/dissociation/a lack of total self awareness as examples of imperfect consciousness)

Maybe it’s because I’m going in completely blind, or maybe it’s because I need to keep reading, but I’m just not understanding many of his premises here. They seem arbitrary.

I’m a complete noob to all things occult/magickal. I’d like to begin practicing, but before I start I want to have a solid framework to be operating in.

My biggest point of confusion is how spirits come into and out of existence, and whether they are governed by/subject to any other beings or laws. It seems like most people understand spirits as independent agents who don’t really align with human morality; if “goodness” is only good inasmuch as it serves humanity, does that imply that there’s no real “greater good”? Is there no inherent strength to moral and good spirits over evil ones? How did everything come to be anyway?

As I mentioned before, I’m new to this so please feel free to point me towards any books that go into this side of things, ideally from a philosophical perspective.