Red Sea symbolism | ARAS (2024)

(a)

It is a sea, so it has all the symbolism of the sea

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(a-1)

(a-2)

(a-2)

STORY OF THE EXODUS

(b)

The first thing one thinks about when the image of the Red Sea comes up is the story of the Exodus. This, you remember, came about on orders from Yahweh to Moses who then, after some difficulties, led the Israelites out of their slavery in Egypt and into the wilderness. There they wandered for forty years and experienced the theophany of Yahweh on Mt. Sinai; eventually they settled in the promised land of Canaan

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CROSSING OF THE RED SEA

(c)

The first stage of this journey out of Egypt was the crossing of the Red Sea, and that crossing separated the Israelites from the pursuing Egyptians. The Israelites got across but, as the Egyptians in their chariots entered the passage, the sea came together again and drowned them. The image of the chariot belongs to the whole Red Sea symbolism, and that comes up later in our material

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STORY AS A PROFOUND REPRESENTATION

OF INDIVIDUATION PROCESS

(d)

This whole story is a profound representation of the individuation process, and so it is inevitable that it is going to be used by the alchemists. The alchemists had an uncanny sense of what was psychically relevant. Since they were working right out of the psyche themselves, they were drawn to all material that came from the same source they were working from. Mythology of all kinds flowed right into the alchemical imagination and became part of the imagery they used to describe their procedures

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CROSSING THE RED SEA DOESN'T LEAD

DIRECTLY TO THE PROMISED LAND

(e)

Crossing the Red Sea doesn't lead to the Promised Land directly. It leads first to the wilderness, and then to the encounter with the numinosum. Only after that does it lead to the Promised Land. So the idea that is represented here is a descent into the unconscious which causes an initial state of disorientation and alienationsymbolized by the wildernessbut which then leads to an encounter with God, and eventually on to a new homea new level of consciousness

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PLACE OF MARAH

(f)

It is quite interesting that in the Biblical account, the first stop after the Red Sea was a place called MarahMarah means bitterness. Not only was the water bitter there, but also it was the place where bitter grumblings took place. So the Red Sea and the symbolism of salt and bitterness all come up in this Biblical context, too

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WORKING OUT OF A LARGER CONTEXT

BRINGS A HEALING EFFECT

(g)

The connection of bitterness with the descent into the unconscious is part of the individuation journey. It is important to appreciate that fact because bitterness is such a prominent feature of our work with patients. We are constantly being barraged by bitter complaints. If we can remember this symbolism and apply it to our everyday work, then we're working out of a larger context. That larger context, slowly but surely, has a healing effect on the bitter complaints that are being expressed out of a narrow context. The larger context gradually loosens up and expands the narrow context, and calms and heals the bitterness

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BITTER EXPERIENCES FOLLOWED BY

ENCOUNTER WITH THE NUMINOSUM

(h)

There are a lot of other examples of bitter wilderness experiences which are followed by an encounter with the numinosum. You remember Elijah, when he was in a suicidal depression, fled into the wilderness to Mt. Horah (fig. 011.2)

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(h)

(i)

Elijah was fleeing to escape Jezebel's wrath. It was in that wilderness that Yahweh came to him and gave him his next assignment. And, of course, the outstanding Biblical example of the bitter wilderness experience that precedes an encounter with the numinosum is the Book of Job

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GNOSTIC ASSOCIATIONS

TO THE RED SEA

(j)

Jung goes into another set of important Gnostic associations to the Red Sea in CW14: pars. 256-257 . I want to underscore these because they are so relevant psychologically. First of all, Jung notes that Augustine connected the Red Sea with baptism, and adds: According to Honorius of Autun, “the Red Sea is the baptism reddened by the blood of Christ, in which our enemies, namely our sins, are drowned. ” In that symbolism, the passage through the Red Sea is a kind of solutio ordeal, involving a death and rebirth, on the other side of which is salvation.That is how the Gnostics described the desert on the far side of the Red Sea

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RED SEA AS A WATER OF DEATH

FOR THOSE WHO ARE `UNCONSCIOUS'

(k)

Jung comments: The Red Sea is a water of death for those that are “unconscious,” but for those that are “conscious” it is a baptismal water of rebirth and transcendence. By “unconscious” are meant those who have no gnosis, i.e., are not enlightened as to the nature and destiny of man in the cosmos. In modern language it would be those who have no knowledge of the contents of the personal and collective unconscious. The personal unconscious is the shadow and the inferior function, in Gnostic terms the sinfulness and impurity that must be washed away by baptism. ( CW14: par. 257 )

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(l)

This would refer to analysis of the personal unconscious. Jung continues: “Unconscious” people who attempt to cross the sea without being purified and without the guidance of enlightenment are drowned; they get stuck in the unconscious and suffer a spiritual death in so far as they cannot get beyond their one-sidedness. ( CW14: par. 257 )

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(m)

All that is directly relevant to our everyday clinical work, as is this: To do this they would have to be more conscious of what is unconscious to them and their age, above all of the inner opposite, namely those contents to which the prevailing views are in any way opposed. ( CW14: par. 257 )

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BE MORE CONSCIOUS OF WHAT

YOU HAVE BEEN UNCONSCIOUS OF

(n)

Now listen to this: if you ever have to cross the Red Sea, this could be life or death knowledge for youhe's telling you what enables you to get across. You have to be more conscious of what you've been unconscious of and what your age is unconscious of

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(o)

Jung continues: Everyone who becomes conscious of even a fraction of his unconscious gets outside his own time and social stratum into a kind of solitude. But only there is it possible to meet the “god of salvation.” ( CW14 : 258 )

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