A Brief Jungian Analysis

(warning, major spoilers. if you haven't seen it, you can find the series online. it's a great series)


The Legend of Korra is, like Paprika, a multifold story of actualization. It is actually a Heroic Journey. Like the epic of Gilgamesh, Korra is the self in this story -- the main protagonist -- and we travel with her through different phases of growth.

The two-part series of Avatar (#1 = The Last Airbender | #2 = The Legend of Korra) exemplifies the two phases of growth. The first being learned competence of the four elements, and the second series being a complete mastery and balance of the self as well as the world. To outline this in books, we have:

The Last Airbender:
Book One: Water
Book Two: Earth
Book Three: Fire

The Legend of Korra:
Book One: Air
Book Two: Spirits
Book Three: Change
Book Four: Balance

An Energetic Metaphor

The four elements are said to be mastered through an approach that acknowledges the philosophy of the element. The airbenders are free spirited people, drifting fluidly in a nomadic lifestyle in a very similar philosophy to their element. Mastering airbending takes "being the leaf" floating along the wind. In like manner, the other elements are mastered.

It is said in the series that Aang, being an airbender to start with, had the hardest time mastering earthbanding -- the element naturally opposed to his personality. Oppositely, we see in Korra that she struggled the most with airbending, due to her far more Yang personality.

The four elements can thus almost be a representation of four temperaments. The mastery of these four temperaments is done by the Avatar, the hero in this story, and also the metaphorical self. Jungian psychology is filled with a plethora of quatrenities, all of which have profound significance.



The cross symbol becomes significant, not only in Christianity, but in a variety of religions because it is the unification of fours - where four symbolizes wholeness. The most direct association we find within the Korra series is to Alchemy, which Jung wrote many books on. In the case of the series, alchemy also deals directly with the four elements.

The Avatar is, like Christ, Muhammad, Buddha - a messiah figure. In Jungian psychology, the Self is synonymous with the symbol of the messiah. The tale of the messiah is always the same. It is one endowed with extra-ordinary power, with a difficult journey in front of them (wherewith they confront the archetypes) and a triumph defined by the conquering of all polarities and if possible even death/life -- ascending into Godhood.

The Second Phase of the Process

After Aang, the Avatar we become familiar with (Korra) starts her journey at the end of her familiarization with the four temperaments. This represents the completion of the first phase, and begins a new and more 'adult' series arc. In here, we are introduced to a few more dualities. I will skip to Book Two, for this part, which is: Spirits.


The Spirit World // The Physical World
Vaatu (Eternal Dark Archetype) // Raava (Eternal Light Archetype)

In the story or Vaatu and Raava, we see a beautiful (omg, seriously) representation of this eternal duality within human nature. This is essentially Jehovah vs Lucifer, Good vs Evil, Life vs Destruction. But what is interesting to me about this, is that the Avatar (messiah) was created through a fusion of Raava (light God) with a human. To complete/balance this offset, we see the introduction of a Dark Avatar, although it's interesting to me that the Dark Avatar has not gone through the painstaking process of learning mastery of the four elements -- and this affects his expression & temperament. We may take this to signify the dark avatar as being an unactualized and one-sided self, gaining power from the unconscious.

What is learned from this book, and from what the dark avatar taught Korra, is that there is a place in this life for the spirits. Korra does something radical and decides to remove the separation between the two, and respect the need for both.

Book Three: Change
I will analyze this one later


Book Four: Balance




In true Jungian form, this already incredible psychological venture takes a new turn and introduces The Shadow. After Korra escaped her previous enemy (an Alever visionary) she finds herself in her lowest point. She has traumatic memories from those moments, which she actively suppresses.

This manifests in her seeing a visual projection of her shadow (essentially, her) in the Avatar State, angry at her. It is very telling that she is unable to go into the spirit world while she is repressing her Shadow. As the spirit world represents the collective unconscious, and what lies in her unconscious is her shadow, she cannot return again to the natural energetic flow between the physical and spirit world without first facing what she is scared of.

This is only a general overview of the topic. As analytical psychology is essentially a comparative, anthropological approach to quantifying the motifs that recur within humanity (as well as what they reveal about human essence) we can analyze Pod'lair just as any religion for its thematic similarities or differences to other spiritual models.

For the sake of this analysis, I will be giving this theory the benefit of doubt and will take the position that Pod'lair's Valein leader Thomas Chenault has formed his framework from his own spontaneous inspiration and communion with the unconscious, as is stated in his material.

Pod'lair is self-described as an omnitheory, with the suggestion that it accounts for all aspects of reality. In truth, it primarily focuses on psychology and the subjective experience. It is, to put it in Jungian terms, a theory of individuation.

Individuation | Heroic Journey

In Pod'lair's theory, the self is central and one is considered the Hero of his own Heroic Story. The aim is becoming one's inner Fu'Masta (which is a harmonization between one's 4 conscious functions and 4 unconscious functions). The fusion of opposites is sought, which also extends to the Uthur (I'll get to that in a minute) - and this is a  concept that echoes very strongly with Jung's theory of the complete Self. To summarize:


The entirety of Pod'lair's theory is then geared toward attaining this goal, which can also be called Enlightenment. Per Pod'lair:


A diagram of what this process of enlightenment looks like can be seen in:





As this thread requires some familiarity with Jung's concepts, I'll only be briefly introducing his concepts and mainly skipping to the analysis aspect of things. What we see from this diagram is very telling.

Shiny Baby/Mergings = The Collective Unconscious

Fu'Masta = The complete Self

Dar'yu = The Shadow

Uthur = The Anima/Animus

Apparatus = The cognitive functions

Mah'zute = Persona(s)

In this post, I want to focus primarily just on the shiny baby and mergings. The mergings are none other than the collective unconscious. Carl Jung describes the collective unconscious as the blissful, spiritual and primordial origins of human religion and mythology. It is the origin of the archetypes, and the place where we all have convergence.


Some of us here may understand what some of these experiences are like, such as when we gaze at the night sky in wonder and awe at the understanding that we are all connected - and connected also with the universe. It is a spiritual feeling, and many a Carl Sagan fan will know what I mean. This blissful sensation resonates profoundly with humanity, and is also the same feeling felt from a belief in God. The feeling of the collective unconscious is the sensation of feeling God, and vice-versa.

Greek mythology is this very same Deity structure, fragmented into the respective archetypes. In parts of India, which have monotheistic beliefs, it is fragmented into many more elements -- but each element which that God fragments into represents an element or archetype of human nature or concern. Anger, Grief, Lust, Fortune, Wisdom, Love, etc.

In Pod'lair, the Shiny Baby and the Mergings are those blissful, unvoiceable "knowings" that must be experienced. And the Shiny Baby lies at the center of things:



But one thing that is very wrong about Pod'lair's diagram, compared to Jung's --- is that it is inverted. Photo #1 above has the unconscious realm due north, while the conscious realm is below. This is significant in more ways than aesthetic. Pod'lair strives for its practitioners to go upward in this diagram, toward more and more spiritual and unconscious paths.

Carl Jung defines self-actualization as the growth away from the unconscious. This is echoed by Ken Wilber, who states that we begin (individually, and also collectively as a species) in the more mythic/magic/archaic realm and rise up from that into a more realized perspective.

Jung warned of the dangers involved with chasing after myths or becoming too deeply immersed in them. Although his view was that it was not possible to ever absolutely actualize the archetypes, as they are integral parts of our humanity, the goal is to bring their influence into our consciousness so that they may no longer be directing our fate.

In this sense, Pod'lair is both right and wrong. It is right in advocating a direct pursuit of this Heroic journey, to find the true self, to change the world, to transform humanity -- but it makes the same error other religions make by guiding a person deeper into myths rather than through it and back.

It is a bizarre thing, but myths have at their end goal a type of disenchantment, integration and relativization. One finally gets what they wanted all along, but not in the idealized form we thought we'd get it. There is a paradox where, if we do it right, the higher we follow the myth, the more we learn about what the myth is doing and the mythology comes to be seen as a metaphor for our own desires. Gaining clarity over the mystical (ie. de-mystifying) is the result, and we attain control over it.

But Pod'lair keeps one within the "intuitive" and mystical, as many religious systems also do. It remains in the magical domain, which speaks to a system that has not yet reached its full actualization. We see this bent/bias also in something they call the Scientific Spirituality Index. Like photo #1, the intuitive/abstract is given higher cognitive priority, while the concrete/literal is given less. This is also seen in the 5 Gears of Mojo Reading, which describe the more literal "gears" being low (1, 2) and the higher cues being intuitive (3,4,5).




True actualization requires that these spiritual assets of humanity be understood as symbolic and relativized against everything else belonging to human nature. It requires that they be seen as integral to the self, part of the self, but in balance. The goal of Jung's self-actualization is the very difficult maneuver of existing simultaneously as a spiritual but earthy being. It requires that we acknowledge everything religion teaches us about who we are, what we are prone to believe, and where that comes from, without being lost in it.

An individuation journey tied to a parent-child myth.

Raven from Teen Titans


Raven's individuation story is a bit more twisted and unique. Just as we've seen, the archetypes can take dark forms as well, and in Raven's case her story is one of a negative (dark) parent complex.

This complex is elegantly tied into a hero journey. As with the above examples, Raven is "the One" but in this case, she's the One destined to bring about the destruction of the universe; nothing to celebrate.

Raven was created "for the purpose of" serving her father, Trigon, and being a vehicle/portal for him to rule the world. Her powers come from him, and she feels like nothing more than a pawn. Raven feels like wherever she goes she can only bring suffering. But even knowing her fate, she lives her life trying to do good and be a hero -- though she doubts her powers can be used for good when they come from the Devil.

This is a metaphor for suppressive parents, who wish to live out their lives through the children (as a surrogate for what they failed to accomplish) and not let the children have their own fate/life/destiny. The parent then becomes this all-devouring and drowning archetype - just like Trigon. It is interesting here that her father is Trigon, which is the equivalent of Satan in this universe. The father archetype is depicted in its dark form.

There are 2 stages to Raven's individuation journey. The first is psychological, and the second is physical.

Psychological

In the episode "Nevermore" she enters into her own mind (along with her friends) to find that Trigon (in this case, literally a psychological archetype) has gone rampant in her psyche.


Raven (the ego) is unable to stop her consuming father on her own. However, she manages to defeat Trigon by integrating all other parts (temperaments) of herself into one:





When she does this she becomes White. This is very telling, because of the symbolism of the color white. In this state she represents the ascended, complete "Self" archetype. In the same way that the Avatar State is the epitome of the complete Self, Raven's white-robed form is the equivalent; which comes to her via the convergence of all her different dimensions. The Self archetype is the archetype that comes about when all qualities of the subject converge and augment into wholeness. In this mode she is able to overpower her father. But then her father also merges into her, leaving her back where she started.

Physical

Later, the prophecy comes to pass, and she becomes the portal that opens a gateway to her father. All her fears are realized and the world gets destroyed.


In the process, she loses all attachment to her father and reverts to a child in white robes. This has a lot of symbolism, but I'll keep it general. I think we can interpret this as the Divine Child, which is a variation of the Self archetype. There are different motifs to the self archetype, for example:

Self as The One /// Neo, Christ, Anakin, Avatar, Harry Potter
Self as Divine Child /// young Anakin, young Jesus, young Noah (in the Book of Enoch)
Self as Messiah /// Christ, Buddha, Mohammad, Moses, Noah
Self as The Complete Self /// Neo after gaining superpowers, Korra in the avatar state

When Raven finally confronters her father again in person, she is still a child. Her father tries to kill her, and then she realizes she still has her power (her energy is white now, not black).

Trigon says: "I am your creator, your master... what hope can a mere child have of defeating her all powerful father?"

And that is when things shift in Raven, and she says one of the most important lines "You may have created me, but you were never my father." She stands up and immediately grows from the Child to the Complete Self.

She continues: "Fathers are kind. Fathers protect you. Fathers raise you. I was protected by the monks of Azarath. I was raised by my friends." This is an important realization to come to (not just intellectually, but emotionally), and this properly emancipates the child from the grip of the parent -- allowing for autonomy and wholeness within oneself. Such a realization is a key aspect of individuation.



She then transforms into a giant raven and eradicates her father; breaking the curse on the world. But more importantly, breaking the curse that loomed over her for her entire life.