The Collective of the Land: Pacha Mama and Jungian Psychology by Deborah Bryon, Ph.D.

Monday, June 30th, 2014

In Peru, the “collective of the land” or pacha mama, is the energetic realm that shamans “source,” or derive power from, existing outside of time and space. Similar to “the Force” in star wars, “the land” is the collective subtle body existing between all living things.  In a Jungian analytic framework, similar to the individual subtle body, what Peruvian shamans refer to as “the land” contains both physical reality and the psychoidal realm. Through the experience of the land, the psychoidal experience “crosses over” from energetic realm into the imaginal realm and physical existence. For the shaman, the land helps to anchor the experience into a “perspective” the ego can more easily assimilate into conscious awareness. Because psychoidal experience lies beyond consensual reality, it is difficult for the ego to understand and integrate the knowledge into a consistent framework without a marker or point of reference. Shamans have an easier time flexing and bending their egos to accommodate the energetic information coming in because of the cultural belief system that supports it. This is because they are able to stay open to the actual experience rather than being caught in the trap of describing it intellectually.

An aspect of collective energetic experience of “the land” corresponds to Jung’s definition of the “objective psyche,” which he said was the unit or layer existing underneath the sum of the archetypal structures.[1] Both Jung and Von Franz have described this as the existence of an anthropos, “the ancient idea of an all-extensive world-soul, a kind of cosmic subtle body.[2]” Jung has also referred to this as the unus mundus, or “one world,” which is a “composite universal Self” exists in what he called “the psychoidal realm,” the central ground of empirical being, existing beyond time and space.

In her description of the objective psyche, Von Franz stated, “As this central unified area of the unconscious is approached, time and space are increasingly revitalized. That deepest area of the unconscious that is simply a unit or the center may be therefore understood as omnipresent continuum omnipresence without extension.” [3]Like the “home tree” in the film Avatar, at this deep level the psyche the unus mundus is not divided in individuals, but is connected with all living things.

A shaman moves into a state of connectivity with the collective of “the land” – or energetic collective – by experiencing through his or her own individual subtle body, which becomes the conduit into experiencing on a much greater, collective scale. The land is the medium of shifting into the experience of collectivity, from an individual to the universal state of the unus mundi. The shamanic collective as an energetic expression contains the archetypes, and is the unlimited depository of man’s universal psychic heritage. In Peruvian shamanism, the collective of the land, is similar to the collective unconscious in the psyche; it is the depository of all experience in nature, and is linked to “membership,” and an affiliation with a sacred mountain. The concept of affiliation with a mountain is similar to the function of Christ in the Christian religion as a link to God. The mountain as a collective spirit is a “bodhisattva,” an intermediary between the person and the collective. The mountain is an active expression of pacha mama, the great earth mother, which I will be explore in more depth in Article V.

This leap from the personal to the energetic collective requires creating and facilitating a shift in conscious awareness.  I believe that the shamanic definition of the collective goes deeper than what some Jungians refer to as the collective psyche. Shamanic experience goes beyond the understanding through the mind, into somatic experience of collective through the body at a nonverbal, pre-image, energetic level. In shamanism, the ego is not a necessary component of the equation needed to “take in” the experience.

The ego requires separation as a means of defining itself – in order to exist. Because the ego does not have the capacity to move beyond a conscious state of separation, being in a state of fluidity requires connecting with something greater and vaster than the ego.  The body is both the vessel that holds energetic experience and the receptor of this experience. Shamans teach that experiencing through the belly enables one to enter a state of fluidity, a state of no separation. This state of fluidity corresponds to the Taoist experience of being in the flow and in balance with the energy around us. Connecting with the land and sensing through the belly, are means of linking to the “source” of the collective – which is the shamanic definition of empowerment. It is an active way to experience the numinous presence and power of the Self that is not a function of the ego.

In Peruvian shamanism, “the heart” – as an expression of connection with pacha mama– is the hub of connectivity in the body and the vehicle through which connection and relatedness with others is experienced. Peruvian shamans say that the heart is where we experience munay energetically, the universal feeling state of love connecting us to the land and every living thing around us. The experience of munay refers to a state of union or an experience of a major conjunctio. It is collective state of love, different from personal love directed specifically towards another person.

Von Franz and Jung both referred to an aspect of this experience as “union through the Self.” Von Franz has written,

“Whereas relations based merely on projection are characterized by fascination and magical dependence, this kind of relationship by way of the Self has something strictly objective, strangely transpersonal about it. It gives rise to a feeling of immediate, timelessness, “being together” (p.177). [5] 

Von Franz’s statement about relationships via the Self corresponds to the Q’ero description of munay. Both, are ecstatic spiritual experiences of connecting with the numinous that transcend time and space. Jung stated, “Objective cognition lies behind the attraction of emotional relationship; it seems to be the central secret. In this world created by the Self, we meet all those many to whom we belong, whose hearts we touch; here “there is no distance but immediate presence.”[6]

Lionel Corbett[7] has written about a glutinum mundi, or glue of the world, a “life force, uniting body and soul (Jung, 1968, 12, par 209). According to Corbett, this glue is the bonding material or prima materia of the conjunctio – a “secretion of the Self.”  As presented earlier, this has also been described as a conjunctio experience between peoplein relation to the field within the analytic container, in the context of transference and counter transference. The experience of the field as a conjunctio experience can also occur outside of the analytic container, often in contexts such as ceremony or communal religious settings. The power of a group in creating an energetic field is well-known and practiced in meditation circles and monasteries around the world.

In Egypt, I had the opportunity to watch whirling dervishes perform and enter a state of ecstasy. Sitting in the room during a ceremony, I witnessed a vibration shift in the entire energetic field of over 100 people! Chanting and drumming rituals and tribal dancing are illustrations of similar phenomena. Pentecostal churches with members of a congregation who speak in tongues, the emotional charge present created by a group of gospel singers.  Modern raves are another example seen in current Western culture of people collectively becoming mesmerized.

 

[1] E. C. Whitmont, “The Alchemy of Healing.”

[2] M.L. Von Franz, “Projection and Recollection in Jungian Psychology,” (p.85).

[3] Ibid. (p.84).

[4] K. Pribram, “What the Fuss is all About,” in The Holographic Paradigm, Boulder, Shambala, 1982 (p.34)

[5] M. Von Franz, “Re-Collection and Projection.”

[6]  C.G. Jung, “CW Vol 8” (par 912).

[7] L Corbett, “Fire in the Stone,” (p. 125)

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