As someone who has their North Node in the 12th house, my incarnation in this lifetime requires that I face and individuate myself from the collective unconscious. The 12th house has been a major source of reflection for me as there are many deep spiritual lessons here. For this post, I want to reflect on the difference between the collective unconscious and the individual unconscious.
One of the greatest dangers for all individuals is the constant and imminent erosion of the individual consciousness by the collective. As you have probably heard from many spiritual texts that preach that the ego is bad and must be killed and gotten rid of. What these teachings are doing is advocating the loss of the self for the collective, a dangerous message that could loose the individual soul. Carl Jung views the collective unconscious as a shared part of all the humans psyche. Because of this part of the collective mind, we are all the same in the way we think. This poses a problem for individuality. The individual ego is at risk and there is a lot of pressure to follow the group mind. Think of someone you know that became famous and was later disgraced and fallen. What happens here is that the collective raised him/her up and then brought him down, dissolving his psyche. To gain prestige is a positive achievement for an individual but what is rare is at risk of being attacked and dissolved by the collective. If you are creative, the collective will bring you down. You are not allowed to be an individual in the collective. This is an instinctual thing for the collective.
For some reason, I have felt an internal resistance to accepting oneness and the idea of sameness and equality. I thought it was my own ego issues, until I realized the reason why. In spiritual cycles, this idea of sameness is being touted as the ultimate attainment of enlightenment. When in fact, it is a covet message to not rise above the collective unconscious and a guilt trip when you attempt to differentiate yourself from the hive mind. Oneness is with source not other human beings. I insist upon my differentiation, and maintain my stance against the instinctive reaction by those who would rather stay small and operate in fear of judgement and abuse by the collective.
An Excerpt From Carl Jung
THE IMPORTANCE
OF PERSONAL PRESTIGE
The importance of personal prestige can hardly be overestimated, because the possibility of regressive dissolution in the collective psyche is a very real danger, not only for the outstanding individual but also for his followers. This possibility is most likely to occur when the goal of prestige universal recognition has been reached. The person then becomes a collective truth, and that is always the beginning of the end
PRESTIGE FOR THE
INDIVIDUAL AND THE CLAN
To gain prestige is a positive achievement not only for the outstanding individual but also for the clan. The individual distinguishes himself by his deeds, the many by their renunciation of power. So long as this attitude needs to be fought for and defended against hostile influences, the achievement remains positive; but as soon as there are no more obstacles and universal recognition has been attained, prestige loses its positive value and usually becomes a dead letter. A schismatic movement then sets in, and the whole process begins again from the beginning
Because personality is of such paramount importance for the life of the community, everything likely to disturb its development is sensed as a danger. But the greatest danger of all is the premature dissolution of prestige by an invasion of the collective psyche. Absolute secrecy is one of the best known primitive means of exorcising this danger
Collective thinking and feeling and collective effort are far less of a strain than individual functioning and effort; hence there is always a great temptation to allow collective functioning to take the place of individual differentiation of the personality
The best way around the collective unconscious is absolute secrecy. If you are to achieve your goals, you must be extremely determined and tread lightly to escape the collective. My spiritual lesson is to stand out and separate my individuality and spiritual ego from the collective, if I am to achieve ascension.
