Paradox of Healing

The old medicine symbol can be traced back to ancient civilisations. The ancient Greeks and Egyptians viewed snakes as sacred, representing rebirth and renewal. One snake symbolises carrying venom. The other snake symbolises carrying the remedial venom. The staff symbolises the chakras and the opened wings symbolise all the chakras being worked through and opened. The snakes intertwined with the staff mirrors how Kundalini moves up the body.

The implications here for the therapeutic process are immense. So according to Jung, the therapeutic process can be linked to alchemy. However, alchemy often gets contorted and distorted into man's quest for gold - immortality, a denial of finitude. This then becomes seeking a short cut trying to avoid doing the 'hard work.' However, in its deeper meaning, Jung was hot onto that when two people come into contact and are affected by each other, something happens on a 'chemistry' level, an exchange happens in the intersubjective space - the space between therapist and client. The intersubjective space is a liminal space. Meaning that when everything that the client brings with them is mixed and combined with everything that the therapist brings is thrown into the cooking pot. The temperature rises and the ingredients are cooking and this takes time, it cannot be rushed or hurried. Something new is then created and neither person is ever the same again. The poison gradually crystalises to form crystals [hidden jewels] that then become our remedy.

This is also very similar to what the Buddhists say about pearls that emerge from a lotus having grown from the mud.

This suggests that poison like sulphur is paradoxically needed for growth. As it is through hardships and challenges that qualities such as resilience, remaining centred in the eye of the storm, wisdom, and humbleness that an I-Thou way of relating and deep compassion for humanity and the world starts to emerge.

This blog originates and is inspired by Jamie Moran