Somewhere between our daily thoughts and the dreamtime of the soul lives a charged knot of energy. That knot can speak with our mouth, move through our hands, and even cast its shadow across the choices we call our own. In the old stories, we would say a spirit took hold of a person. In Jungian terms, we say they are caught in a complex.
A complex is not only a wound. It is a constellation of memory, emotion, and image, bound together by feeling and soul. It may form around mother, or father, or power, or shame. But at its heart, always, is an ancient archetype—the universal root of human experience.
To be caught in a complex is to be temporarily pulled away from the center of one’s being. Like an actor taken over by a role, we play out a drama that may be ours, but not wholly ours. And yet, that very drama can be the key to our healing.
That is one of the mysteries Dr. Ken James explores in his powerful course at Jung Platform. With a background in Jungian analysis, theology, music, and myth, he speaks with both clarity and deep compassion.
Complexes are not to be feared. They are the rough surface of the soul’s attempt to grow. They are patterns that hold not only our suffering but also our potential for transformation. In myth, the hero is often caught in a spell or tangled in an underworld maze. The path is not to avoid the labyrinth, but to find the thread.
Each of us has a thread—woven from memory, dream, and image. The complex forms when a moment of intensity becomes too large to hold. The psyche, in its deep wisdom, wraps that moment in image and emotion and stores it in a pocket of the unconscious.
We go on. We adapt. The child grows into an adult. But one day, the old thread tugs again. A word is spoken. A scent rises. An emotion flares. And we are no longer fully ourselves. The complex has returned.
Yet this return is not a curse. It is a summons.
The complex draws us back to the place where soul awaits our attention. If we listen, we find that what feels like possession is a portal. The soul has something more to say.
The Jungian path is not one of perfection. It is one of depth. Wholeness is not the absence of conflict, but the weaving together of what was once torn. The healing begins not by cutting the complex out, but by entering into dialogue with it.
This is where image becomes our guide. An image that arises in a dream, or in memory, or in active imagination, is not just a picture. It is alive. It carries the voice of the soul. As Ken James teaches, when we engage with the image, it opens. And when we return to it again, it opens more.
In the ancient world, they said that the gods dwell in images. In modern terms, we say that the unconscious speaks through symbol. The truth is the same. To be in relationship with the unconscious is to be in relationship with something greater than the ego. It is to live a mythic life within the ordinary one.
Complexes bind us. But they also hold the key. At the center of the knot is a mystery. When we touch it with care, the knot begins to loosen. The story hidden in the wound begins to unfold.
And as that story is told, the soul grows stronger. The self becomes more whole. Not by rising above, but by descending deeper.
The way forward lies through the old pattern. Not to repeat it, but to gather what it holds. The lost part of the soul waits there, behind the complex, behind the wound.
That is where meaning dwells. That is where healing begins.
Madeline – Soulful Nuggets Team
This blog is a reflection on the course ‘Complexes and Archetypes‘ taught by Ken James .