An Order Outside Time: A Jungian View of the Higher Self from Egypt to Christ

by Robert B. Clarke

The line of Western Spirituality began in Egypt and continued through the time of Christ. Has it become stalled in the years since? Robert Clarke says yes, it has. In The Four Gold Keys , Clarke, going by his own spiritualization in the psychic depths, argued that the way out of Western civilization's essential atheism lies in the psychological teachings of Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. In An Order Outside Time , Clarke reinterprets Western Spirituality, using Jungian symbolism, to show that the great stories of ancient Egypt and of the Old and New Testament are processes of what Jung called individuation. This is the individual's journey from lowest to highest Self; from Osiris to Horus, from Moses to Joshua, from David to Solomon, from John the Baptist to Jesus Christ. These pairings also reflect what Joseph Campbell calls the Hero's Journey, which may ultimately spiritualize the whole culture. Clarke traces the connections between Egyptian, Jewish, and Christian mythology, and--concluding that the West's spiritual lineage has become stalled--maintains that we can attain wholeness only by making sense of the clues provided by our mythology. This is the royal line of Higher Self incarnations through the collective unconscious. The ultimate example of individuation, Clarke says, is the Christ, who must now be further understood and developed. And, taking Christ as our symbol of the Self, direct experience of the sacred, by each of us, can enable us to achieve our greatest spiritual potential, both as individuals and as a whole culture. An Order Outside Time shows how that spiritual journey began and how it must be continued.

488 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 2005

About the author

Robert B. Clarke was born in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent in 1942, and died there in November 2009. Clarke was an independent scholar and mystic who delved deeply into the realms of philosophy, religion, and psychology.

Reviews

[Maxime Rolaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Order Outside Time is a must-read for anyone interested in comparative mythology, more specifically Egyptian and biblical.
Robert Clarke here investigates what he terms “royal line”. According to him this occurrence originated in Egypt with Iu-em-Hetep and Horus. It was then continued with the quests of such figures as Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Solomon and Jesus of Nazareth, all of which are allegorically narrated in the Bible.
It is a scholarly work, yet quite accessible and concise. The author draws interesting parallels between the recurrent symbols underlying worldwide myths and folk-tales. He also provides what seems to be a sound interpretation of some of the key biblical episodes which, he says, mostly recount the phenomenons experienced through the personal and collective unconscious.

On a more contemporary note, Robert Clarke discusses or rather asserts a few thought-provoking ideas that would shake many an Atheist and conservative Christian. Although I partly agree with these I find them poorly elaborated here. Also the same bits of information tend to be repeated too often. As an example, the word "unconscious" is probably used a few hundred times throughout the book, and so is the expression "individuation process", which can be hammering and dull at length.

These minor issues aside, An Order Outside Time is well worth a read.