Like a quasar at the center of our being, the Self continually pulses its quantum frequencies out into the world. In the process, it magnetizes outer events and circumstances to us and shapes the course of our lives. It is in this sense that Heraclitus’ maxim “Character is destiny” is true. Or as Jung paraphrases, “What happens to a person is characteristic of him.”
At the heart of each life stage, according to Jung, there exists an archetype, along with a corresponding set of tasks to be mastered and problems to be solved. Though differences in outer circumstances and inner make-up make each person’s journey unique, the archetypal energies encountered along the way are universal. To engage with them psychologically may endow even the most apparently fragmented postmodern life with a sense of meaning and depth.
Jung often commented on the formative role played by the ancestors in an individual’s psychological complexes, indeed in his fate. In his view, a person who lacks a connection to his or her ancestral roots is bound to suffer from an absence of depth and meaning, while psychological healing can take place when a connection to the ancestral wellsprings is found.