The Integral Revolution and the Tetramorph

“‘Individuation’ is Jung’s term for the process of achieving such command of all four functions that, even while bound to the cross of this limiting earth, one might open one’s eyes at the center, to see, think, feel and intuit transcendence, and to act out of such knowledge.”

Joseph Campbell

Campbell’s remark here might be taken as a succinct description of “the integral revolution” — the eye opening and awakening as the centre of a mandala, which is effectively the meaning of Blake’s “fourfold vision”. There is much packed into this brief statement by Campbell, elements discussed in previous posts of The Chrysalis, and especially the significance of Rosenstock-Huessy’s “cross of reality” and quadrilateral logic. This is the meaning of Campbell’s remark about our being “bound to the cross of this limiting earth”, which is the cross of space and time.

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Fixity and Flow

So, we have been attempting here at The Chrysalis to lend some concrescence, as it were, to the the consciousness “mutation” that is occurring today by the irruption of time into consciousness, and which is also generating much social turbulence in the process of its emergence.

Turbulence is often the result of flow meeting fixity, like a rapids in a river. And this recognition of fixity and flow has become something of a common theme for describing the changes in consciousness and society that are occurring. It offers a convenient way, also, of explaining what Jean Gebser means by his terms “perspectival/rational” and “aperspectival/arational” consciousness, or mental-rational and integral, respectively.

The One-Sided Attitude

In The Ever-Present Origin, Jean Gebser speaks simply of a disastrous “one-sided attitude” of “a mentality headed for a fall”. This is the basis for his critique of entrenched perspectivism or what we call “the point-of-view” consciousness. It’s as simple as that, really. This one-sided attitude is exactly what Blake lamented as “Single Vision” in which he foresaw the same catastrophic outcome.