How, then, can one produce something of beauty or goodness without doing an equal amount of wreckage? It is possible to live one’s ideals, do one’s best, be courteous, do well at work, and live a decent civilized life if we ritually acknowledge this other dimension of reality. The unconscious cannot tell the difference between a “real” act and a symbolic one. This means that we can aspire to beauty and goodness—and pay out that darkness in a symbolic way.
