An Inner Journey Through the Soul Spiral

One morning I wrote in my journal about what we do when we are lost, or when life looks like a desert. Nothing but sand in every direction, and no clear way through the next source of water.

And I found that I don't usually move forward in a straight line, at least, not for long. But I spiral.

Same patterns, same wounds, same rejected calls, come back, but at deeper levels.

And sometimes a single insight reveals and collapses years of previously held beliefs.

🧚Meeting the Divine

For most of my life, I was a skeptic when it came to validating the idea of the Divine. The word felt slippery, too easily shaped into something dogmatic or vague. I equate it only with the Infinite Source, the Field, or Higher Energy— vast concepts that transcend form, but certainly not something as personal as angels.

To this day, I'm still not sure whether the Divine and angels are the same. But something shifted after I took an online course, How Do We Strengthen Our Consciousness with The C.G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology, NYC in 2022. It was the Divine timing. It was as though the rhythm of my own unfolding began to align with a deeper current, and the word "Divine" slowly took on new meaning.

In Jungian psychology, the Divine is not necessarily equated with a particular god, angel, or religious image—it is seen as an archetypal reality within the psyche. Jung often spoke of the Divine as the Self: the deepest, most total expression of the psyche that encompasses both conscious and unconscious. The Self is not the ego; it transcends the personal "I" and points to wholeness, a unifying center that carries both personal and collective meaning.

From this view, the Divine is experienced as numinous—a presence or energy that feels larger than life, awe-inspiring, and often transformative. Jung borrowed the term "numinous" from Rudolf Otto to describe that overwhelming sense of mystery and power one feels in contact with the sacred. The Divine, then, is not an external being but a symbolic way of relating to that inner presence which seems greater than the individual ego.

Because Jung was both a scientist of the psyche and a student of myth, he emphasized that the Divine appears in countless archetypal forms: gods, goddesses, angels, ancestors, light, nature, dreams, synchronicities. These images are psychic symbols that point toward the same underlying reality—the unconscious attempt to bring the ego into relationship with the Self.

In this sense, the Divine is both psychological and transpersonal—a bridge between the inner world and the mystery that transcends us.

Thus, when someone speaks of the Divine—whether they imagine angels, the Infinite Field, or a quiet intuition of presence—a Jungian would hear it as the psyche's attempt to symbolize the Self's call: the invitation to wholeness, to align ego with a greater order that holds both suffering and healing.

There's another similar skeptic case I resolved, and managed to collapse the old belief structure in order to step closer to my Soul. And that is, prayer.

Now that I see the Divine less as a figure and more as an archetype, a symbol pointing beyond itself. It makes sense to me in the same way the word "prayer" now does. I once thought prayer meant kneeling with folded hands, eyes closed, blindly asking God for something — a ritual fixed in form. But I've come to realize that prayer is not about posture or petition. At its essence, prayer is simply communication with a safe presence, a trusted energy, whatever form that may take. It is a return, again and again, to that which steadies us.

To Jungian disciples, prayer, ritual, or moments of reverence are not about "believing in" a deity, but about entering into dialogue with the unconscious, with that archetypal dimension of the psyche where the Divine dwells.

This isn't a new idea. Across cultures, prayer has always been a bridge—not just to gods, but to the unseen order of life. In Vedic traditions, mantras were recited as vibrational offerings, aligning the human voice with cosmic rhythm. In ancient Egypt, prayer was both invocation and declaration, giving voice to the soul's longing for harmony with Ma'at, the principle of truth and balance. Indigenous traditions around the world understood prayer as an intimate dialogue with the land, the ancestors, and the elements.

Whether whispered into the wind, sung in ritual, or silently held in the heart, prayer has always been less about asking and more about aligning.

✨ In short:

• The Divine = archetypal image of the Self.
• It is felt as numinous, mysterious, and transformative.
• It manifests in symbols (angels, gods, energy, synchronicities).
• Prayer = a way of relating to that inner dimension.
• The Divine is both within and beyond us, a living symbol of wholeness.

With this reframing, the Divine became something I could approach without skepticism. Not a distant deity to believe in or not, but a living archetype—a pattern of meaning that shows up whenever we dare to speak, listen, or simply open ourselves to connection.

The Divine is not fixed or confined to dogma—it is an archetypal image of the Self, arising within us and mirrored in the world outside us. It's less about "what it is" and more about "how it moves us," guiding us toward wholeness, meaning, and connection with the larger order of existence.

🌹Divine Feminine

If the Divine can be understood as an archetype of wholeness, then the Divine Feminine is one of its most intimate expressions. In Jungian language, she is both the Great Mother—the source of life, nurturance, and belonging—and the terrible mother, the one who tests, strips, and transforms. She is paradoxical: a giver of comfort and an initiator into depth.

For me, the longing for the Divine Feminine is not abstract. It comes from the child who once grew up unseen, whose psychological needs went unmet, who learned early on that love could be scarce or conditional. Material lack was present, yes—but the deeper wound was a lack of nurturance: the first mother I never had.

To speak of the Divine Feminine, then, is to speak of a presence that offers what was missing: unconditional love, a sense of safety, a belonging that does not waver. She comes not only through outer figures—mentors, guides, friends—but through an inner reconnection, the primary source of self-love. Jung and von Franz remind us (especially through fairytales) that these archetypal energies are not outside us; they live within the psyche, awaiting encounter.

In fairytales, the Divine Feminine often appears disguised: as Baba Yaga, who terrifies yet teaches; as Vasilisa's doll, a small inner guide of intuition; as Persephone, who descends into darkness only to rise as queen. These images echo the spiral of my own path. What I lacked in the human mother, I have slowly reclaimed in the archetypal Mother, whose face is both fierce and tender, who does not shield me from suffering but accompanies me through it.

🌟Closing Reflection

So when I think now of the Divine, I no longer mean only the Infinite Source or the abstract Field. I mean this archetypal current that shows up in symbols, dreams, synchronicities, and in the quiet rediscovery of prayer as dialogue with the soul. In particular, the Divine Feminine—the presence that teaches me to nurture myself, to belong to myself, and to love in ways that heal the old fractures.

The Divine, then, is not fixed, not confined to angels or dogma. It is a living archetype: a call to return, again and again, to that inner source of wholeness. And in my case, it is the call of the Feminine—both a balm for the neglected child and an initiation into the woman I am becoming.

📚 Further Reading

How Do We Strengthen Our Consciousness: A course lecture, David Rottman, Instructor. The C.G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology, NYC.

Marie-Louise von Franz – The Feminine in Fairytales

Clarissa Pinkola Estés – Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype

Carl G. Jung – The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (Collected Works, Vol. 9, Part 1)

Eric Neumann – The Great Mother

Robert A. Johnson – She: Understanding Feminine Psychology