“Touching the Collective Unconscious: Guidelines to Awaking Profound Experience Through Archetypal Landscapes” is the title of my Master’s project.  When researching and exploring primordial archetypes I came across tangible symbols or shapes to aide in explaining archetypes and how they can link to concrete form.  The four archetypal symbols that were discovered during my studies are: the mountain, the cave, water, and circle.  Each of these symbols represent a concrete object that can help us link to the non-concrete quintessential core of the cosmos or what some call the profound, divine, whole of Nature, the great All, Heaven, Nirvana, etc.   Whatever your spiritual preference (or non-spiritual preference) these symbols can help you reflect about a Great Beyond.

Linus from Charlie Brown once said, “You can never discuss religion, politics, or the great pumpkin” and I agree.  So, I thought a science field would be a neutral field to use for describing the whole of Nature. I came across the field of Archetypal Psychology to describe the core of the cosmos.  When one links to the profound or the core of the cosmos, they link to what Archetypal Psychology terms the collective unconscious.  This is the layer of the human psyche that comprehends inherited, primordial symbols that exist in the psychic substance of all individuals.  One day I aspire to publish an article in a journal and below is the opening Abstract:

Profound experiences are rare events and are undoubtedly precious.  Because of their marvel and infrequency, they seem difficult to obtain and more impossible to create. By methodoligically using archetypes and their symbols in engaging ways, transcendent barriers can be overcome and profound observations can be enabled.  This entry explains the methods and techniques to create landscapes that promote profound experience.  It explores specific guidelines so that artists, architects, and designers are able to create meaningful places that enlighten viewers to surpass the ordinary and contemplate the divine.

I know, I know the post’s title has the word paint in it so where does painting come in?  It comes in my latest series where painted “scenes” of archetypes show paths and links to the Great Beyond.  Stay tuned for more explanations of archetypal symbols and their ways to reach the collective unconscious.