Importance of Symbols & Religions.

I've watched a film about Jung's Psychology and Symbols.

Here's summary:

In Jungian Psychology, as opposed to Freud's one ... topics of Mythology and Religions have important place. Ignoring these is a big mistake, when one tries to understand modern civilized man's Mind, or at least I think so.

Human Mind is like a riverbed. It has no water in itself, but when water flows in, it is given specific form, shape and direction.

Similarly, Human Mind is like riverbed... when object of perception flows in, is seen by senses and flows into Mind, emotions and thought processes are activated.

This Mind's Riverbed was shaped by evolution, like physical body... and is called: 'collective unconscious'.

We've inherited from our ancestors certain tendencies, tendencies to interpret and to react to certain symbols in a certain way.

In this film some of the biblical symbols were explained:
- Snake (danger, enemy, poisonous) and Tree (roots in ground, trunk that gives stability and tree's crown that reaches heavens) in Garden of Eden,
- Mount Sinai (climbing mountain means detachments from daily chores, means reaching for spirituality), and the 10 Commandments of Moses (tablets of stone that bring the laws and stability to society),
- Great Flood and Noah's Ark (great water is like chaos, cataclysm).

Bible uses these symbols to tell something about a man, what he/she was before and how he/she is now.

When we observe a symbol via our senses, before we understand it, we react according to Bible's transmission.

I think that we would revert to primitive and brutal tribal mentality, if not religions.

Despite all of their faults, religions help humans to be civilized, to communicate with each other, to go beyond the tribe mentality.

Are symbols important at all?
- When we walk the street, when we see red light, we obediently stop and let cars pass until light turns green.
- When we look at smartphone, we recognize symbol of green headphone, despite that new phones are not like modern ones anymore.
- When we enter a coffee bar, we see a simple symbol of the cup and steam, and we know that we are in 'right place'.

There are research efforts that prove that without symbols, humanity and civilization would revert into chaos, like it was in the past.

As for archetypes:

Jungian archetypes are universal, inherited patterns of thought, imagery, and behavior residing in the collective unconscious, forming the basis of human experience across cultures. Originally conceptualized by Carl Jung to represent innate, symbolic psyche elements, these archetypes include core figures like the Self, Shadow, Anima/Animus, and Persona. Perhaps I am wrong, but I think that archetypes are tendencies that give symbols certain forms, like riverbed gives form, shape and direction to the water.