From Fear to Hope: Overcoming Apocalyptic Visions

By John van der Steur - April 20, 2024

Two weeks ago, we experienced a total solar eclipse here in Austin. For about two minutes, it was so dark that the street lights ignited.

For the first time, I understood why ancient cultures saw solar eclipses as a sign of impending doom, gloom, and apocalypse.

This event got me to reflect on the prevalence of apocalyptic thinking in our society today.

Apocalyptic visions and dystopian worldviews are increasingly expressed in books, movies, and in the (social) media. It makes me wonder, "What is the collective unconscious trying to communicate here?"

Robert A. Johnson wrote, "We are presently dealing with the accumulation of a whole society that has worshiped its light side and refused the dark, and this residue appears as war, economic chaos, strikes, and racial intolerance. The front page of any newspaper hurls the collective shadow at us."

Carl Jung was very clear that "Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate."

The good news is that we can change our fate if we make our dystopian, apocalyptic unconscious more conscious. So here we go.

The roots of apocalyptic thinking can be found in our typological tendencies and our inability to hold the tension between polar opposites. Let me explain.

The Technician archetype, characterized by Blue Thinking and Green Sensation, embodies the relentless drive for technological progress and efficiency.

From the birth of steam engines in the Industrial Revolution to the Internet revolutionizing communication, the Technician has reshaped our world in so many great ways.

At the same time, we've experienced the shadow side—wars fueled by technological prowess and environmental pollution/degradation to the point that there's no more room for error.

As Carl Jung would remind us, when one type becomes so dominant that it becomes disconnected from its polar opposite, it loses its grounding, becomes neurotic, and collapse is inevitable. 

This is where the apocalyptic visions are quite accurate. They warn of what can happen if we don't consciously embrace the opposite temperament of the Technician: the Visionary.

The Visionary is the antithesis of the Technician. This temperament, seen in poets, musicians, and prophets, wields "Yellow Intuition" and "Red Feeling."

They have the ability to go deep into the heart of darkness, find the first inkling of light, and bring it to consciousness through an inspiring, poetic expression.

Martin Luther King said, 

"I still have a dream, a dream deeply rooted in the American dream – one day this nation will rise up and live up to its creed, 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.'"

Through his poetic vision, King transformed the narrative from one of racial despair to one of collective hope.

It was appropriate that he stood at the monument dedicated to Abraham Lincoln, another Visionary who, during the Civil War, used his Gettysburg Address to call upon the better angels of our nature.

He did not just see a country torn by civil war, but envisioned a new birth of freedom "and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Apocalyptic thinking is what we call in typology "Negative Intuition." The future is seen through a lens so darkened by doom and destruction that it overshadows Intuition with its potential for positive change, growth, and transformation.

What our times need is the power of the Visionary to counterbalance the Technician's despair and illuminate paths forward in even the darkest of times.

This work is about holding the tension between polar opposites: to face and endure the darkness of the night while heralding the light of the new dawn. To think in terms of both-and instead of either-or.

Where are the Kings and the Lincolns of our times? Where are these visionary leaders? Who are they and what is their message?