Integrating Ancestral Realm Into the Understanding of Spirits
Your class presentation was based on Jung's chapter from Volume 8 on the Psychological Foundation for Belief in spirits. You also presented the work from a dissertation that examined the Dialogic Interpretation of the Psychological Belief in Spirits, that in particular looked at the integration of the ancestral realm as a further development in Jung's perspective as exemplified by the Gamei culture's understanding of their relationship to the spirit world.
All of that being said, I am asking you to write a 2-3 page paper that expands on the notion of what it means to integrate the ancestral realm into the understanding of spirits, and what that looks like psychologically in our work with our own integration and with clients.
Reference: Chapter V - The psychological foundations of belief in Spirits - Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 8: Structure & Dynamics of the Psyche 2nd ed. Edition, Kindle Edition
INTEGRATION OF THE ANCESTRAL REALM AS A FURTHER DEVELOPMENT IN JUNG'S PERSPECTIVE AS EXEMPLIFIED BY THE GAMEI CULTURE'S UNDERSTANDING OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO THE SPIRIT WORLD.
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This article is analyzed using Jung’s understanding of the spirits and precisely the spiritual realm of the Gamei people. Jung viewed spirits as the psychological foundation that explains humanity’s urgent quest for intimacy with the spirit world, because there are many connections between the world of spirits and the physical world. This is a theme common in the understanding of death, ancestors and their influence on the living among the Gamei people. Ancestral spirits are believed to be the spirits of one’s ancestors who have passed and they now exist in the spiritual realm. Schopenhauer notes that the human person is made up of two substances; the material body and the immaterial soul (Charet, p. 137). This is a view similarly held by Jung who notes that there are dualistic components within the archetypes of the human psyche (Yebuah, 2009). The Gamei people believed that a human personality is composed of tripartite elements: susuma (spirit), KRA (soul), and mumo (breath) (Yebuah, 2009, p. 73). They all reside in a human body and the spirit transitions into another realm where it continues to exist after the individual has died. Thus, for the Gamei people, death is only the end of the physical body and the spirit has to join the ancestral realm. Most of the rituals that are performed after death are meant to help the spirit on the journey and life in the ancestral realm. Yeboah describes some death and funeral rites that are designed to help the spirit enter the ancestral realm. For example, the Ga people shave all the body hair of the deceased and their fingernails and they are brought to their home to be buried at the corner of the house. If these things are not buried in the house, the Ga people believe that the spirit of the departed member will not rest in the ancestral world (Ghohiiajeng) (Yebuah, 2009, p. 111). Other burial rites include bathing the corpse which they believe brings reconciliation between the deceased and the ancestral realm. Without the touch of the water, the deceased spirit would not enter the spirit world (Yebuah, 2009, p. 113). Another significant ritual is breaking the kola nut. It is a ritual meant to dissolve the relationship with the dead (Yebuah, 2009, p. 118). The hypothesis is that the deceased person continues to affect society and the living a...