The transcendent function does not proceed without aim and purpose, but leads to the revelation of the essential man.
It is in the first place a purely natural process, which may in some cases pursue its course without the knowledge or assistance of the individual, and can sometimes forcibly accomplish itself in the face of opposition.
The meaning and purpose of the process is the realization, in all its aspects, of the personality originally hidden away in the embryonic germplasm; the production and unfolding of the original, potential wholeness.
The symbols used by the unconscious to this end are the same as those which mankind has always used to express wholeness, completeness, and perfection: symbols, as a rule, of the quaternity and the circle.
For these reasons I have termed this the individuation process.
This natural process of individuation served me both as a model and guiding principle for my method of treatment. ~Carl Jung, CW 7, Paras 186-187
You find no trace of the transcendent function in the psychology of a man with definite religious convictions.
What the term “transcendent function” designates is really the transition from one condition to another.
When a man is caught by a religious concept, he does not leave it; he stays with his religious conviction, and,
furthermore, that is what he should do.
If any conflict appears, it is immediately repressed or resolved by a definite religious idea.
That is why the transcendent function can be observed only in people who no longer have their original religious conviction, or never had any, and who, in consequence, find themselves directly faced with their unconscious.
This was the case with Christ.
He was a religious innovator who opposed the traditional religion of his time and his people.
Thus he was extra ecclesiam [outside the church]and in a state of nulla salus [no salvation].
That is why he experienced the transcendent function, whereas a Christian saint could never experience it,
since for him no fundamental and total change of attitude would be involved. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Page 268
Viewed from the psychological standpoint, extra-sensory perception appears as a manifestation of the collective unconscious.
This particular psyche behaves as if it were one and not as if it were split up into many individuals.
It is nonpersonal.
(I call it the “objective psyche.”)
It is the same everywhere and at all times.
(If it were not so, comparative psychology would be impossible.)
As it is not limited to the person, it is also not limited to the body.
It manifests itself therefore not only in human beings but also at the same time in animals and
even in physical circumstances.
(Cf. the oracle technique of the I Ching and character horoscopes.)
I call these latter phenomena the synchronicity of archetypal events.
For instance, I walk with a woman patient in a wood.
She tells me about the first dream in her life that had made an everlasting impression upon her.
She had seen a spectral fox coming down the stairs in her parental home.
At this moment a real fox comes out of the trees not 40 yards away and walks quietly on the path ahead of us for
several minutes.
The animal behaves as if it were a partner in the human situation.
(One fact is no fact, but when you have seen many, you begin to sit up.) ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Page 395.
You are not responsible for your constitution but you are stuck with it, and so it is with the anima, which is likewise a constitutional factor one is stuck with.
For what we are stuck with we have a certain responsibility, namely for the way we act towards it, but not for the fact that it exists.
At any rate we can never treat the anima with moral reprimands; instead of this we have, or there is, wisdom, which in our days seems to have passed into oblivion. ~Carl Jung,
Letters Vol. I, Page 193
The transcendent function is not something one does oneself; it comes rather from experiencing the conflict of opposites. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Page 269
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