Jung, The Antichrist Archetype and Shadow Work

[
The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers

Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox

Week of 7/14-19/2025: Jung,
the Antichrist Archetype
& Shadow Work

7/20/2025

July 14, 2025: Heschel, the “Demon of Power” & The New Budget Bill (MF)

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel tells us that “the world is not just here. It shocks us into amazement.” Daily, we can receive awe-inspiring images from around the universe—if we let it.

But Heschel also said: We have achieved plenty, but lost quality; we have easy access to pleasure, we forget the meaning of joy. But what is more serious is the fact that man’s worship of power has resurrected the demon of power….

Yes, the demons of lies and greed and unchecked billionaire privileges are alive and well, as the passing of the recent big, bad budget bill makes clear. Why are Republicans and MAGA folks choosing to follow the path of the Antichrist?

July 15, 2025: Demons of Power & MAGA: Alligator Alcatraz (MF)

Rabbi Heschel wrote that “man’s worship of power has resurrected the demon of power.” We need look no further than the abomination that is the so-called Alligator Alcatraz. Detainees are basically living in “flimsy tents” surrounded by chain-link fencing. And the hurricane season is fast approaching. What could possibly go wrong?

Meanwhile, environmental laws are being ignored. No environmental impact study was done before this Dachau-like camp was hastily erected. Among other things, the endangered Florida panther is also jeopardized. Environmental groups are suing. Says one commentator: “This is not America. This is a grotesque perversion of justice, governance and basic human decency.”

July 16, 2025: René Girard and Human Violence (GG)

MAGA folks, like J.D. Vance, bend the teachings of Christianity to fit their views. The late Pope Francis responded to his interpretation of the meaning of Christian love, based on St. Augustine, by making a public statement denouncing his words. (See DM April 28.)

Another person whose words are sometimes twisted is the late René Girard, a world-renowned literary critic turned philosopher. Christianity comes into play in Girardian thought because it is a religion which celebrates symbolically the martyrdom of a human scapegoat, namely Jesus.

However, the policies of the Trump administration are completely opposite to what Girard suggested. Their policies basically consist of scapegoating immigrants, progressives, transgenders, etc.

Vance’s flunk on Christian love
“Vance’s flunk on Christian love.” Nondual Christian

July 17, 2025: Alligator Alcatraz and Jung on Evil (GG)

Another person who can help us to understand our current state of affairs is Carl Jung. During the rise of Nazism in Germany, Jung spoke about the archetype of Wotan, the ancient god of the Germanic tribes, suggesting that his qualities of rage and frenzy were taking hold of the German people.

Jung also spoke about the approach of the Age of Aquarius (sometime between the year 2000 and the year 2200) as a time in which it will no longer be possible to write off evil as the mere privation of good; its real existence will have to be recognized.

In our era, of course, the collective shadow is manifesting itself in the cruelty and lies of the current administration, as well as the MAGA people who do things such as pose gleefully in front of the signs for “Alligator Alcatraz.”

As spiritual people, we cannot afford to unsee what we have seen, and what we see every day, painful though it may be.

July 18, 2025: The Speck and the Log in Jungian Terms

We’ve been exploring the concept of archetypes. We can help avoid unconsciously being affected by them when we do shadow work. Jung’s position on shadow work can best be summarized by a well-known Gospel teaching: Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye but do not notice the log in your own eye?

Jung’s suggestion to start working first from individual consciousness sounds impractical, especially when the house is on fire, but at the same time it sounds correct.

The proverbial evangelical log is still very much an unavoidable psychological reality. Shadow work is important because it helps prevent us from projecting onto others that which we do ourselves.
How could so many people support Hitler? – Joseph Lacey

“How could so many people support Hitler?” An exploration of Hannah Arendt’s philosophy and strategies to oppose totalitarian oppression. TED-Ed

July 19, 2025: The Shadow & MAGA’s Eagerness to Shut Down NPR & PBS (MF)

In a recent DM, GG reported how Carl Jung warned of the antichrist as an archetype that can take over a society.

Evil appeals to unhealed personal trauma and outrage that can easily get projected onto others as scapegoats and objects of hatred “worthy” even of sadistic measures.

This week, the MAGA congress is voting to gut public funding of PBS television and NPR radio. Why? Because their news broadcasts upset their leader in the White House.

In an editorial entitled “This Is Why America Needs Public Media,” the New York Times compares the public media to the U.S. Postal Service and to public libraries, because without public funding, small communities would not have mail service or libraries.*

Furthermore, as more and more local newspapers and TV stations fold around the country, public radio “can be the sole source of information.” Worst of all, for fascism to succeed, one needs a dumber and ever less critical society.

*The Editorial Board, “This Is Why America Needs Public Media,” The New York Times, July 16, 2025.

Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, or read other comments and enter into dialogue, please click HERE to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field.

Recommended Reading

Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election

Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.

From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…

Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.

For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE.
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE.

To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.

Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society

Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science. A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics