immortality and the consciousness of mortality. So far I have been content to describe the consciousness of immortality as the perfectly relaxed consciousness; and that I think is right so far as it goes. In contrast the consciousness of mortality is either under strain, or in a state of unstable equilibrium, due to the conscious or unconscious fear of death (which is only one's uncertain belief in one's own immortality). But there is in the life of any person a progression in consciousness, as the years pass. A man becomes more mature; or on the contrary he becomes more senile. Naturally it is the same with the consciousness of immortality as with mortality, since the only difference between them is the presence or absence of the fear of death. To take an example: if God exists, to suggest that his consciousness now is the same as it was when he walked with Abraham or talked with Moses is just childish. It displays no understanding at all of what God has to put up with, and how his consciousness must inevitably be affected by his experience in his dealings with men. In other words it displays a mentality which has never learned to think of things from God's point of view at all, but only from its own point of view. God's love may be the same; but his consciousness cannot be. It is not blasphemy to have compassion on, or sympathy for, God. Jung in his little book, “Answer to Job”, discusses the idea of God struggling to achieve consciousness through his dealings with Job, and not in vacuo.
This I think is the key to the whole problem. There is no difference between the consciousness of immortality and of mortality; they both obey the same laws, they are both formed by conduct, they both mature with experience; except that the consciousness of mortality has in it something that kills. It is not something tangible of course, because consciousness itself is intangible. It is a kind of overshadowing, which moulds the development of which the consciousness of mortality is capable. It moulds the consciousness of…