Artist - Nat Clegg
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I have many interests in things that touch the question about existence and meaning. I tend to aim to capture things along the way, attracted to the awkward and somewhat eclectic patterns … stuff happens, log it or lose it. I tend to be distracted most of the time, unless there is something that transfixes me. Recently over the past decade I have had an emergent relationship with mountain and in particular Monviso.
The mountain stands for the goal of the pilgrimage and ascent, hence it often has the psychological meaning of the Self. As a symbol … my mountain is Viso the Self in transformation and extension of who I am becoming, consciously and subconsciously Self. The archetype of wholeness and the regulating center of the psyche; a transpersonal power that transcends the ego. It encompasses both the experienceable and the not yet experienced. … It is a transcendental concept, for it presupposes the existence of unconscious factors on empirical grounds and thus characterises an entity that can be described only in part. The self is not only the centre, but also the whole circumference which embraces both conscious and unconscious; it is the centre of this totality, just as the ego is the centre of consciousness. The self appears in dreams, myths, and fairytales in the figure of the “supraordinate personality,” such as a king, hero, prophet, saviour, etc., or in the form of a totality symbol, such as the circle, square, quadratura circuli, cross, etc. When it represents a complexio oppositorum, a union of opposites, it can also appear as a united duality, in the form, for instance, of tao as the interplay of yang and yin, or of the hostile brothers, or of the hero and his adversary (arch-enemy, dragon), Faust and Mephistopheles, etc. Empirically, therefore, the self appears as a play of light and shadow, although conceived as a totality and unity in which the opposites are united. Like any archetype, the essential nature of the self is unknowable, but its manifestations are the content of myth and legend. |
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Mountain peaks are where heaven and earth touch, are places of divine revelation. An ascent to a mountain top is a symbol of initiation. The symbol is the primary method of communication for the unconscious, and indeed for the entire psyche. While signs are directly tied to a specific idea or object, the symbol has multiple levels of meaning.
The symbol is the primary method the mind uses to accomplish the task of engaging and dialoguing with content it cannot fully perceive or completely comprehend consciously. Kant springs to mind here – Awe and wonder, the act of being terrified and curious at the same time. The mountain has the symbolism that aims for the mind's inner enhancement and the absolute world of self-consciousness (Elide, 1959). Jung's individuation is to become 'Self,' demonstrating and incorporating the mind that we bring to the world when we are born. “The libido (sexual desire yet it is the life instinct) that is freed from the unconscious by means of the symbol appears as a rejuvenated god.” - C. G. Jung |
