The Hero, the Sphinx, and the Holy Virgin

Unlike Freud, Jung believed the religious experience was essential to total fulfillment of the personality, especially in the second half of life. In his case, as in that of many other people today, the sacrifice of the heroic aspects of his relationship to the world was necessary before he could gain access to the experience of a center where feminine and masculine archetypal energies were united in an inner marriage, as the consciousness encountered the challenges specific to the quest for individuation.