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Union of Opposites: Cinema

One of the most dramatic examples of this union of opposites in recent cinema occurred in the second film of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, “The Two Towers.”

The movie opens with Gandalf the Grey engaged in a battle with a fire demon called the Balrog. Gandalf the Grey and the Balrog are polar opposites in every respect. Their battle results in mutual destruction as is shown later in the film when several characters meet the new Gandalf the White in Fangorn Forest.

Gandalf the White represents the union of the opposites into a stronger, more balanced character. The benevolence and wisdom of Gandolf the Grey combined with the fiery power of the Balrog, which represented Gandalf’s shadow.

But, as per this model from Jung, Gandalf the White is a new whole person who is greater than the sum of the two parts [opposites].

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Union of Opposites: The Caduceus

Consider the snakes as they wind around the staff of Mercury. They are in eternal conflict. They represent  the opposites that can be perceived. Life & Death. Science & Art. Any pair of opposites you can imagine. They cannot unite at their own level, as Jung described because they are in eternal conflict. But provided enough energy and focus, a transcendent third may appear, represented by the winged globe above. This is wholeness, or the synthesis which arises from thesis and antithesis.

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Jung on the Union of Opposites

“As opposites never unite at their own level, a supraordinate ‘third’ is always required, in which the two parts can come together. And since the symbol derives as much from the conscious as from the unconscious, it is able to unite them both, reconciling their conceptual polarity through its form and their emotional polarity through its numinosity.” Jung – Aion

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The Union of Opposites

Jung’s work was central in applying the ideas relating to uniting the opposites contained within the conscious and the unconscious for psychospiritual growth. However, the seeds of this concept were planted deep in history. Plato is often attributed to first raising the concept of thesis, antithesis, synthesis, although these were not his exact words.

Meister Eckhart brought Christian concepts to the German speaking people by considering God as the thesis, Christ as the antithesis in physical form, and the unifying concept as the Holy Spirit. His work was censured by the Catholic Church soon after his death.

Hegel described this in terms of his dialectic: two opposites which created a new whole. His usage was more along the line of the abstract as the first principle which would generate a form of its automatic opposite as it became concrete in the world. The opposing energy between the two would then generate a new level of understanding. Writers who later described Hegel’s work used the Thesis – Antithesis – Synthesis model to describe his thought.