For quite some time now, I have been exploring the idea that human suffering has two different sources:
(1) personal, and
(2) transpersonal (collective).
And I am increasingly realizing that there are people who experience the second one to a greater degree.
This means that the origin of their suffering does not relate only to their personal fate and life circumstances, but is connected with the working-through of collective pain. The reason for this is simple: these people have a stronger and more direct connection to the collective unconscious. Although they experience suffering in a deeply personal way, its source is transpersonal.
This idea first came to me through Mechthild Scheffer’s book The Encyclopedia of Bach Flower Remedies and the description of the flower Mustard (wild mustard). According to Dr. Bach, this flower is suitable for people who
“are prone to experience dark moods or despair. It is as if a black cloud surrounds them and hides the light and joy of life, often without any possible explanation or reason. Under these circumstances it is almost impossible for them to appear happy or cheerful.”
What is essential about this transpersonal kind of suffering is that the people who experience it have neither control over it nor any rational reason to feel the way they do. And yet they feel inexplicably depressed, desperate, melancholic, grief-stricken, sad. But what impressed me most in the description of this wild flower and the archetype of people prone to such states is the following:
“Some people possess a particular affinity with this quality of energy and can transform more of it within themselves than others. They may find consolation in knowing that every transformation within the individual also has an effect on all others and on the greater whole. They can overcome their melancholy and may even feel a sense of fulfillment in the thought that their melancholy has made our planet brighter than before.”
— M. Scheffer
Later, when I was reading Gerrit Gielen’s description of highly sensitive people, I returned once again to this theme. He writes of them as “angels on Earth,” and although the reason for incarnating is different for each individual, the common element is this: to help the Earth in its evolution and development.
“Through the presence of all these angels on Earth, human society as a whole gains light and sensitivity.”
As someone who is deeply drawn to Jung and to the idea of archetypes, I cannot remain indifferent to this way of explaining suffering that appears, at first glance, to be without cause. Jung himself described mystics as “people with a particularly vital knowledge of the processes of the collective unconscious,” and “the mystical experience as knowledge of the archetypes.”
It becomes clear that different authors describe the same phenomenon in different language: there exists a type of person who has more direct access to the contents of the collective unconscious – including the suffering contained within it. If they succeed in transforming it within themselves, this also transforms the same energies within the collective unconscious.
This is expressed very clearly by Robin Norwood in her book Why Me? Why This? Why Now?:
“An illness or trauma may be chosen by the soul not only to heal a certain aspect of the individual’s consciousness, but also to heal an aspect of the greater group consciousness. When this happens, the esoteric law of sacrifice comes into play. Whenever the well-being or consciousness of many people advances through the suffering of a few, the law of sacrifice is at work.”
(p. 44)
For those who walk a spiritual path, such knowledge can bring consolation. It helps them find meaning in the pain they go through, and thus to carry it with greater inner lightness. We Bulgarians have such a figure in our history – Vasil Levski, who said: “If I win, the whole people win; if I lose, I lose only myself.” There is no doubt that he was one of those deeply spiritual beings who dedicated their life to the Greater Whole.
The potential of the Mustard flower in its transformed state is that such a person “passes through light and dark days with inner joy, cheerfulness, and inner security.” They continue to have dark moments of sorrow and pain, but they bear their suffering without feelings of guilt or sinfulness – with courage and inner strength. Botev writes of Levski that even in the most critical situations he remained bright and strong: “Cold, wood and stone crack, hungry for two or three days, and he sings and is always cheerful…”
Yet heroism is not the privilege of a chosen few, but of everyone who walks the path of individuation.
Therefore, if you are among those people whom the darkness of the world envelops and submerges in an ocean of sadness and hopelessness, it is good to know the above. It may help you free yourself from the neurotic suffering that arises from not understanding what is happening to you. Through this understanding, resistance to the experience falls away, and what remains is only the inevitable suffering – the suffering you do not create yourself through your thoughts or actions. And being able to carry this suffering restores your dignity and gives you the strength to continue walking your path forward – the path of self-sacrifice.
Kameliya Hadzhiyska
Note: The quotations are translated from Bulgarian and are not presented as verbatim citations.
