Collective Unconscious

Collective Unconscious (German Kollektives Unbewusstes) is a concept of Carl Gustav Jung ("Über die Archetypen des kollektiven Unbewussten", 1934/1954): a deep layer of the psyche common to all people, containing archetypes — universal primordial images and patterns of behavior.

Three Levels of the Psyche (Jung)

1. Consciousness (Bewusstsein) — "I", the ego, daytime awareness
2. Personal unconscious (Persönliches Unbewusstes) — repressed memories, complexes
3. The collective unconscious — the archetypal layer, independent of personal experience

Evidence of Existence (Jung)

Jung's empirical arguments. The existence of the collective unconscious is argued through three groups of observations:

• Recurring mythological motifs in cultures with no contact
• Typical images in dreams and psychoses
• Spontaneous reproduction of alchemical symbols by patients unfamiliar with alchemy

Significance for Errarium

The ontological basis of archetypal causality. In the Errarium context, the collective unconscious is the ontological basis of archetypal causality (axis C3): Tarot (#20), the runic oracle (#21), the monomyth (#45) all work through the activation of archetypal images.