Synchronicity Cambray

Figure 6. Jung’s image of the Self as four octahedrons. Reproduced from the
Collected Works of C. G. Jung, volume 9, part II, Aion. Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton/Bollengen, 1979 edition, p. 247. Permission from Paul & Peter Fritz AG
Literary Agency for the C. G. Jung Estate. Courtesy Stiftung der Werke von C. G. Jung.
grams is the breaking of, or reduction in symmetry in Jung’s fullest
representation, an image that remained unpublished until 2007.
In their general form Jung’s diagrams all show highly regular, symmetric
features; even the most complex of them demonstrates rotational
as well mirror symmetry. However, unlike all of the diagrams
published in Aion, Jung’s sketch to White (fig. 7) shows the top octahedron
rotated 90 degrees relative to those below it and in the larger
diamond, diagonal lines linking the lower frontal face of the second
octahedron and with upper dorsal face of the third octahedron, which
reduces the symmetry of the whole figure to a single mirror plane.
Additionally, as noted by Lammers, 42 these diagonal lines, from matter
to the symbol and mind (spirit) to the symbol, are omitted
from the drawing in Aion, again simplifying and symmetrizing
the published figure relative to the one in the letter to White. This
Complexity, Emergence, and Symmetry ( 6 )