For Jung, spirituality is a turning toward the inner side, toward that which lies within, within oneself; toward the psyche and psychic life and away from the outer world; toward the hidden, the still undiscovered, the enigmatic, and that which exceeds and evades consciousness.
This inward orientedness is undertaken by an individual witnessing and experiencing the failure of all systems of belief, whether theological-religious or logical-philosophical. Disruption, uncertainty, and loss orient us toward “things of the spirit”, which become a problem as soon as established systems fail to provide the certainty, security, and clarity that they promise. Unlike theological-religious and logical-philosophical systems, “things of the spirit” are one’s own and, by being so, refuse the generality pertaining to all systems.
This turning toward what is “on the inner side” results from the realization that the systematic, in its theological-religious dogmatizing or logical-philosophical arguing, is limited and limiting in such a way that it “can no longer embrace life in its fullness”. Existence is deeper than, different from, and more mysterious than the systematic in religion and philosophy.
The psyche “becomes something in its own right” as soon as that which is on the outer side encounters its own limits and immediately fails. Jung says that not everyone experiences this failure of systems and the systematic; this failure still hides itself, but not from those who experienced uncertainty, loss, and doubt and, as a result, underwent a division against themselves.
This inward orientedness is thus a turning toward the fractured within oneself, toward that loss dividing oneself, that shattering disturbance, that absence. Being-divided-against-oneself means being-at-war-with-oneself, where distress, agony, and discomfort cannot be escaped from. Nor can they be rendered less. Only loss is: “the shattering of our faith in ourselves and our own worth”, and losing faith “in the possibility of a rational organization of the world”.
Divided against oneself, and at war with oneself, one turns toward oneself, toward a depth within oneself, toward a revealing silence that organized systems of belief neither understand nor can catch sight of.
Unanswered and unanswerable questioning and constant doubting and self-doubting lead us back to ourselves; they orient us toward ourselves and throw us back upon ourselves: inwardedness as a constant movement; as a way of being, away from the outer world and toward the psyche in our search for that which exceeds what the outer world can make available: spirituality.
Thrown-back-upon-oneself means being-drawn-to-one’s-innerness; the most concealed, the most obscure, the most enigmatic, and yet the most disclosing; that is, unconsciousness and its manifestations as paths toward the hidden from view and therefore the most revealing; “the shadow of life” as what discloses life the most; the night as being brighter than the day.
Inwardedness refuses organized religions and yet it is itself religious; a religious way of being without religion, where the dogmatic disappears, where there is a refusal of everything that disregards the lived experience of the individual, that is, a rejection of what ignores the depths of psychic life.
Inwardedness is mystical. Mysticism and spirituality need and pervade each other. They are into each other. What was put together as organized religion in a distant past loses its place and force. For inwardedness is toward what is most distant in psychic life.
Inwardedness is toward and into the psyche, beyond and outside consciousness. The aim is to experience for oneself and to discover oneself. Therefore, that which is handed down concerning oneself, the world, and existence is to be rejected.
The truth lies within the psyche, where the still undiscovered is. The conscious world, the outer world, prevents and refuses genuine discovering. Ugliness characterizes the outer world: “The unexpected result of this spiritual change is that an uglier face is put upon the world. It becomes so ugly that no one can love it any longer — we cannot even love ourselves — and in the end there is nothing in the outer world to draw us away from the reality of the life within. Here, no doubt, we have the true significance of this spiritual change. After all, what does Theosophy, with its doctrines of Karma and reincarnation, seek to teach except that this world of appearance is but a temporary health-resort for the morally unperfected.”
Spirituality is neither systemic nor fixed. Nothing in it is or should be taken for granted. New forms are constantly arising and nothing is stable in psychic life. Fixity, stability, and limits pertain only to consciousness. But consciousness is to be made silent; it is to be challenged. For “what is significant in psychic life is always below the horizon of consciousness”.
Inwardedness means that “we are dealing with things that are barely visible — with the most intimate and fragile things — with flowers that open only in the night. In daylight everything is clear and tangible; but the night lasts as long as the day, and we live in the night-time also. There are persons who have bad dreams which even spoil their days for them. And the day’s life is for many people such a bad dream that they long for the night when the spirit awakes”.