The Symbolic Life: Lessons from Carl Jung's Encounter with the Pueblo People
In the vast collection of Carl Jung's writings, one encounter stands out as particularly illuminating about the difference between modern Western consciousness and traditional indigenous worldviews. Jung, the renowned Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology, recounts a profound conversation with a Pueblo Indian master of ceremonies that reveals deep insights about meaning, purpose, and the symbolic life.
Jung's Encounter with the Pueblo Master
Jung describes meeting with a tribal elder who explained the central importance of their sun ritual. The Pueblo man told Jung:
"Yes, we are a small tribe, and these Americans, they want to interfere with our religion. They should not do it, because we are the sons of the Father, the Sun. He who goes there [pointing to the sun]—that is our Father. We must help him daily to rise over the horizon and to walk over Heaven. And we don't do it for ourselves only: we do it for America, we do it for the whole world."
The elder went on to warn that if Americans interfered with their religious practices through missions, "In ten years Father Sun won't rise any more, because we can't help him any more."
The Meaningless Pursuit
What fascinated Jung wasn't just the belief system itself, but the profound psychological difference between the Pueblo people and modern Westerners. He observed tourists and travelers "always looking for something," describing a woman he met in Central Africa who was driving alone from Cape Town to Cairo. When Jung asked what she was seeking, he saw in her eyes the look of "a hunted, a cornered animal—seeking, seeking, always in the hope of something."
Jung contrasts this restless searching with the "natural fulfilled dignity" of the Pueblo people, who live what he calls "the symbolic life."
The Symbolic Life
For Jung, the symbolic life represents participation in something greater than oneself—a cosmic drama that gives meaning to human existence. The Pueblo people, by understanding themselves as "sons of the Sun" with the responsibility to help their Father rise each day, are living within a meaningful narrative that connects their daily actions to the wellbeing of the entire world.
Jung suggests that this participation in the "divine drama" is what gives true meaning to human life, making everything else—careers, material success, even producing children—seem relatively insignificant by comparison.
The Wisdom for Modern Times
What can we learn from Jung's encounter with the Pueblo master? Perhaps it's that our modern pursuit of individual achievement, constant stimulation, and material comfort fails to satisfy our deeper need for meaning and connection to something transcendent.
Jung suggests that the psychological problems prevalent in modern society stem from this disconnection from symbolic meaning. The Pueblo elder's observation that Americans are "always full of unrest, always looking for something" when "there is nothing to be looked for" speaks to a spiritual emptiness that cannot be filled through external seeking.
The symbolic life offers an alternative—finding meaning not through endless pursuit of new experiences or achievements, but through understanding one's place in a larger cosmic or spiritual narrative.
Reflection
Jung's account challenges us to consider: What is our equivalent of "helping the sun rise"? What gives our daily actions meaning beyond their immediate utility? How might we recover a sense of participation in something greater than ourselves—whether through religious tradition, cultural practice, environmental stewardship, or other forms of meaningful engagement with the world?
Perhaps in answering these questions, we might find something of the "natural fulfilled dignity" that Jung observed in the Pueblo people, and move beyond the restless seeking that characterizes so much of modern life.