Light from Darkness

            In his Psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype, Jung (1990) echoes the Greek concept of syzygies and says, "there is no consciousness without discrimination of opposites....[and] nothing can exist without its opposite" (p. 96). Mankind has typically symbolized consciousness with light, and the unconscious with darkness. Edinger (1974) writes:

Light represents consciousness. All peoples have myths of creation which depict it as the creation of light. Such myths refer to the creation of the ego which is the light of consciousness born out of the darkness of the unconscious. Similarly, dawn is the daily birth of the light of the sun and is an apt image to represent emerging consciousness.  (p. 129)

            We can therefore relate the symbolisms of light emerging from the darkness, the ego emerging from the psyche, consciousness emerging from the unconscious, and order emerging from chaos.