The Interval of Being
“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” — Carl Jung
Carl Jung’s assertion that enlightenment is not born from imagined light, but from the courage to make darkness conscious. The “interval” here is not a pause or a void—it is a living threshold. It is the space between what is revealed and what is repressed, between the self we perform and the self that watches in silence.
Rather than opposing light and darkness, this interval holds them in tension. Light without shadow becomes illusion; darkness without awareness becomes denial. Consciousness forms precisely in this in-between state, where neither side is resolved, yet both are acknowledged.
Awareness is not a destination—it is a condition that exists only while we are willing to stand between contradictions. In this interval, the self is not fixed; it is actively forming, unforming, and reforming.
Here, darkness is not the absence of knowledge.
It is the place where knowing begins.
