As an audio-inclined human, I tend to find music as an effective way to experience and relate to Jungian themes (and by proxy, many other numinous topics). I want to acknowledge that how one may experience Jungian themes in music or art in general can be highly subjective and based on what resonates with one’s own journey. As such, I’d love to hear what resonates with y’all!

Neurosis - Purify (post-metal, sludge)

• “Path of spiral reaps fetal buried gold. Humbled in the womb, a center opens to the unknown… Descending the path of an ascending god. Purify my hells to climb the heavens.”
• For me, this song seems to speak to the hidden alchemical gold. A sense of cleansing aspects the unconscious, with an orientation towards a humbling center.

The Beatles - Fixing a Hole (psychedelic rock)

• “I’m fixing a hole where the rain gets in and stops my mind from wandering. Where it will go. I’m filling the cracks that ran through the door and kept my mind from wandering. Where it will go.”
• “And it really doesn’t matter if I’m wrong, I’m right where I belong, I’m right where I belong. See the people standing there who disagree and never win and wonder why they don’t get in my door.”
• Maybe an unexpected choice, but this song seems to speak to the importance of maintaining boundaries. I also feel a sense of dealing with opposites (right vs. wrong, inner vs. outer) and the wonderful play on words of being “right where I belong.” Fun fact: The Sgt. Pepper album cover has Jung in the upper left corner (7th from the left).

Tool - Ænema (progressive rock/metal)

• “Some say the end is near. Some say we’ll see Armageddon soon. Certainly hope we will. I sure could use a vacation from this bullshit three ring circus sideshow.”
• “Learn to swim, learn to swim, learn to swim. 'Cause Mom’s gonna fix it all soon. Mom’s coming 'round to put it back the way it ought to be.”
• “'Cause I’m praying for rain. I’m praying for tidal waves. I want to see the ground give way. I want to watch it all go down. Mom, please flush it all away. I want to see it go right in and down. I want to watch it go right in. Watch you flush it all away.”
• The song and album titles seem to be combinations of the words anima and enema, and potentially a sense of feminine flushing. A wish for an unconscious flooding event.

Tool - Forty Six & 2

• “My shadow’s shedding skin. I’ve been picking scabs again. I’m down, digging through my old muscles, looking for a clue.”
• “I wanna feel the changes coming down. I wanna know what I’ve been hiding in my shadow. My shadow. Change is coming through my shadow.”
• "See my shadow changing, stretching up and over me. Soften this old armor. Hoping I can clear the way by stepping through my shadow, coming out the other side. Step into the shadow. Forty six and two are just ahead of me.”
• Maybe an obvious choice, and most likely the song that first introduced me to the Jungian concept of the shadow at an early age. For me, it invokes a sense of addressing and orientating towards the shadow for the sake of personal evolution.

Tool - Third Eye

• “On my back and tumbling down that hole and back again. Rising up and wiping the webs and the dew from my withered eye.”
• “So good to see you, I’ve missed you so much. So glad it’s over, I’ve missed you so much. Came out to watch you play. Why are you running away? Came out to watch you play. Why are you running?”
• “I stick my hand into the shadow to pull the pieces from the sand, which I attempt to reassemble to see just who I might have been. I do not recognize the vessel, but the eyes seem so familiar.”
• For me, this song invokes a sense of a (somewhat painful) communion with the unconscious. A sense of going “down that hole and back again” and attempting to integrate what is found.