#like sams a reflection of that burning nursery. like hes a harbinger of marys death. like hes the reason mary died

[hellhoundlair]

always so shocking to me when sam asks if mary died on sams 6 month birthday. like he didnt know. did he just think john getting drunk and sad and snappy with him the beginning of every november wasnt out of place. do u think dean ever connected the dots to the anniversary and would try to steer john and sam away from each other because john forgets to be nice when hes mad and sam, however young and innocent, somehow always gets under johns skin. did he think john never acknowledging sams birthdays was because he hated him and not because looking at sam on his 10th birthday struck him with the fact that it had been 9 and a half years since mary died and all he has is a child with an inexplicable air of evil to him.

[drsilverfish]

Jack Kline Novak Winchester: Son, TFW Mirror, Trinity and Key; Quaternity, Ouroboros, Caduceus, and Harbinger of The End

“I am a hunter, I am the son of Lucifer, I am a Winchester!” (14x14 Ourboros).

“One becomes two, two becomes three, and out of the third comes the one as the fourth.” (the alchemist Maria Prophetissima 1-3 C AD). This refers to the four stages of alchemy, the refining of base metals into gold on the material plane, but the refining of the soul to God on the spiritual plane -  nigredo (black), albedo (white), citrinalis (yellow), and rubedo (red).  

In Jung’s interpretation of this alchemical piece of wisdom, this means the refining of the psyche:

1) = Conscious Self

2) = Unconscious Self (the Shadow or Mirror)

3) = Inner Mediator

4) Integrated Self

(One of the books Dean uses to build the Ma’lak box in 14x11 Damaged Goods)

This meta is concerned with Jack’s rich symbolic role in the SPN narrative. 

Jack enters the story to help Team Free Will face their Shadow-Selves and thus evolve psychologically.

This concludes my S14 meta series on the Jungian (and alchemical) themes of the season.

You can read all the previous meta in that series here:

1) The Shadow 14x08

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/180906003584/the-shadow-14x08

2) 14x09 The Spear (Jungian Decoder Ring Edition)

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/181122764984/14x09-the-spear-jungian-decoder-ring-edition

3) Jung and Dean’s Journey Towards Self-Integration in 14x11 Damaged Goods

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/182299438269/jung-and-deans-journey-towards-self-integration

4) Ouroboros in Prophet and Loss (14x12)

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/182486474324/ouroboros-in-prophet-and-loss-14x12

5) A Pearl of Great Price - 14x13 Lebanon

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/182660472289/a-pearl-of-great-price-14x13-lebanon

6) The Serpent and the Egg: Snake and Eye Symbology in 14x14 Ouroboros

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/183327000184/the-serpent-and-the-egg-snake-and-eye-symbology

7) Another Alchemical Easter Egg in 14x14

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/183388134889/another-alchemical-easter-egg-in-14x14

8) The Scapegoat: Speculative Musings on S14′s End (Moriah) (Linked to the Season’s Jungian Themes - Scapegoating and the Unacknowledged Shadow)

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/184045009309/the-scapegoat-speculative-musings-on-s14s-end

9) Dean’s Jungian Shadow Arc in S14: Confronting the Internal Father (2x22 to 14x20 Moriah)

https://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/184507150574/deans-jungian-shadow-arc-in-s14-confronting-the

Jack is dualistic; Good and Evil, Human Soul and Angelic Grace. He is a trinity: Human, Angel and “Demon” (fallen Angel); Dean-mirror, Cas-mirror, Sam-mirror. He is also a quaternity, thanks to the additional feminine element: his mother, Kelly Kline and his adoptive mother/ grandmother Mary Winchester (the latter resurrected by the feminine God-principle Amara).

Jung considers the quaternity to be highly significant (he refers to “squaring the circle”) including, as above, in relation to his interpretation of Maria Prophetissima’s alchemical summary as being analogous to the stages of psychic growth and integration. He often considers the, Son, Father, Holy Ghost and Mother Mary of Christianity to be external symbols for the four stages or elements of the human psyche.

“The quaternity, is an archetype of almost universal occurrence [. . .]” For instance, if you want to describe the horizon as a whole, you name the four quarters of heaven…There are always four elements, four prime qualities, four colours, four castes, four ways of spiritual development, etc. So, too, there are four aspects of psychological orientation [. . .] The ideal of completeness is the circle sphere, but its natural minimal division is a quaternity” 

(Jung: Psychology and Religion: West and East).

Conceived by stealth-rape in a Bucklemming episode (12x08 LOTUS) Jack was possibly off to an inauspicious start as the Devil’s Baby.

But Jack the Nephilim, son of Lucifer and Kelly Kline, had the good sense to adopt Castiel as his protector in the womb, and from then on out he has ascended through the spiral narrative like the phoenix he is.  

Born in 12x23 All Along the Watchtower, Jack was always part of Dabb’s Ouroboros narrative. A "demon” with yellow eyes in a nursery, a child, and a mother who dies; Jack was a mirror, reflecting SPN’s origin story, of Azazel feeding baby-Sam demon blood, and burning Mary Winchester on the ceiling. And Jack was Sammy and Azazel both. 

Castiel died at Jack’s birth too, murdered by Lucifer in front of Dean’s horrified eyes, thus placing Cas in the role of Mary Winchester and Dean in the role of John Winchester.   

Adopted by a reluctant grieving Dean and a hopeful Sam, Jack discovered he loved nougat and stole a lot of fandom hearts. 

Importantly, through their adoption of Jack and his reflection of many of their previous experiences, TFW are forced to recognise themselves (including painful repressed elements of themselves) in him, thus he enables them to better meet their Shadow-selves and evolve. In this sense he is the mediator between the Ego and the Id, the conscious self and the unconscious self, the Self and the Shadow for TFW. That is why Jack is linked to the symbol of the Ouroboros, the snake swallowing its own tail, because in alchemy that signifies transformation:

This self-recognition (of themselves in Jack) is initially much easier for Sam and Cas than it is for Dean....

Sam the boy corrupted by demon blood, of course sees himself in the innocent yet unstable son of Lucifer. Cas, fallen angel in love with humanity, likewise naturally sees himself in a half-angel/ half-human child who is struggling with his place in the world. 

Juxtaposing innocence and enormous power (potential for good and potential for evil) Jack was a child who grew up too fast, literally (appearing twenty whilst only two). In this respect, he was a mirror for Dean, who had to grow up too fast when his Mom died, assuming the role of substitute-parent to Sammy. 

Dean has a hard time recognising and having compassion for the innocent child part of himself that he gave up to become Daddy’s “good little soldier” and caretaker to Sammy. Which is why his journey into loving Jack (as a reflection of himself) goes hardest (see my meta on Dean’s Jungian shadow arc, linked above, for more on this). 

Jack is also (like Dawn in Buffy) a metaphysical, mystical key. He opens doors; doors between dimensions/ worlds and alternate universes as well as doors in the psyche between the Self and the Shadow. He is the key to Chuck’s multiverse and to the larger God-machine.

Jack (responding to Dean’s intense grief) resurrected Castiel in The Empty, the space where dead angels and demons go. Only Chuck had resurrected Castiel previously. So, we see Jack step into the role of God, but in a place (The Empty) where (if we believe the Cosmic Entity that resides there) God has no dominion. Jack already presages God Level Mark II.   

With Mary Winchester in the apocalypse world (she who was resurrected by the feminine God-principle, Amara) Jack stood on the side of humans against angels, and in this, he was a mirror for Castiel (who rebelled against Heaven to stand with the Winchesters). 

When his birth father, Lucifer, stole his grace in 13x23 Let the Good Times Roll, Jack became de-powered (human-ish) again, mirroring Castiel (and his Human!Cas arc after the angel fall in 8x23 Sacrifice).  

With his soul/ grace unbalanced, Jack began coughing up blood; a mirror for Sam’s journey during the demon trials of S8.

Knowing he was dying, Jack went fishing with Dean in 14x07 Unhuman Nature 

Ahhh all the lovely fish and fishing metaphors SPN has employed over the years. Fish have sometimes stood for humans, sometimes stood for angels, but always for angel/ human convergence. Jung in Aion (reading medieval alchemical texts) writes about the fish as an alchemical symbol for the philosopher’s stone (the mystical substance that allows transformation - of matter and spirit and, for Jung, of the psyche):  “...alchemical fish symbolism leads direct to the lapis, the salvator, servator, and deus terrenus; that is, psychologically, to the self.” (Jung, Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self, 1979: p157)   

So, Dean and his adopted Nephilim son fish together, which recalls, in particular, Dean’s fishing dream in 4x20 The Rapture, which Cas entered and there passed Dean a love note of assistance. If fish are angels, then Dean and Jack have already “caught” one, by means of love: Castiel.

Dean is placed here again in the role of his own father, John Winchester. 

JACK: “You once told me you and your father did the exact same thing. It was your happiest memory of him.”

And Jack, as the product of angel/ human congress, has always stood (in subtext) as a metaphor for the love between Dean and Cas.

But, metaphysically unbalanced, Jack sickens further. An injection of Gabriel’s archangel grace doesn’t help. TFW take him to the hospital together, to no avail. Sam, his third adoptive father, keeps vigil at his bedside as he dies.

Jack finds himself in Heaven. Here he is a mirror for Sam and Dean, who have both died multiple times on the show. He reunites with his mother Kelly Kline, but The Shadow (a manifestation of The Empty particularly linked to Castiel, symbolising, as it does, Cas’ Jungian Shadow-self) has invaded Heaven and wants to drag Jack to The Empty with it. Jack’s duality is here highlighted, as his human soul belongs in Heaven, but his dead angelic self belongs in The Empty, (according to the SPN cosmic sorting hat!)

Castiel comes searching for Jack in Heaven, and makes a deal with The Shadow in 14x08 Byzantium - Jack’s life for his own (the moment Cas allows himself to be happy). Cas and Jack mirror Dean and Sam here, and all the supernatural deals they’ve made, or tried to make, to bring one another back from death over the years. Cas in particular mirrors Dean, because Sam has always, in one sense, been not only Dean’s brother, but his son. 

As ever, there will be a price to pay for this deal. Not only Castiel’s promise to surrender himself to the Shadow, but also the second “death” of Mary Winchester (caused by a resurrected Jack). 

But, Cas loves his Nephilim son so much (<my heart>):

Held in an unstable balance thanks to Lily Sunder’s dark soul-consuming magic, things start to get dicey for Jack post-resurrection. He tries to impress Max, Stacy and Eliot (the Lebanon kids) and ends up stabbing Stacy (Castiel’s mirror) with an angel blade (14x16 Don’t Go in the Woods) leaving Max (Dean’s mirror) grieving over her body, thus, in that moment, mirroring his father Lucifer (12x23 All Along the Watchtower), However, he brings Stacy back from death (mirroring his own resurrection of Cas) but every time he uses his powers, he burns off some of his soul:

Wow he is cycling, Ouroboros style, through so many previous TFW arcs.

And so we arrive at 14x14 Ouroboros itself, THE crucial episode in terms of all this symbology, in which Jack kills the Queer Gorgon Noah Ophis (himself an Ouroboros symbol = Noah from Genesis and Ophis from Revelation) to save the Winchesters and adopts his snake, Felix (also an Ouroboros symbol). 

Then, he burns off considerably more of his soul (perhaps all of it  - it’s unclear) to kill AU!Michael, and swallows his grace, Ouroboros style:

Jack is now another symbolic duality and trinity - he contains elements of both Michael and Lucifer, the two opposing forces in Apocalypse Mark I, now united in one being. The third element is provided by his humanity (now, seemingly, in jeopardy). 

An evolved and fully re-powered-up Jack has sprung forth, just as Pegasus the winged horse and his brother Chrysaor of the golden sword did from the neck of their Gorgon mother Medusa when Perseus slew her:  

In this form, Jack is linked (via a book on Donatello’s shelves behind him in 14x15 Peace of Mind - thanks to @postmodernmulticoloredcloak for this spot!) to the Caduceus symbol on the spine of the Book of Life here:

The Caduceus is the staff of Hermes, consisting of two serpents entwined about a staff crowned with wings. Hermes is the messenger of the Gods in Greek mythology. He can move freely between the worlds of God and men (linking to Jack’s function as a metaphysical key, on both a micro-cosmic psychological scale, and a macrocosmic God-machine scale). Hermes was also a psychopomp, a conductor of souls to the afterlife. The psychopomp is linked by Jung to the psychological mediator function - that which mediates between the Self and the Shadow, as Jack does for TFW via his mirroring function. 

Jack’s visit to Donatello also serves to remind us that even someone without a human soul can live a good life if they pick the right role models (Donatello picks Mr. Rogers, Jack picks the Winchesters). 

In 14x15 Peace of Mind, Jack demonstrates both his potential for good and evil in this new diminished soul-state, via a (misplaced) compassion (good) which leads him to kill Felix the snake (evil) believing the beastie is grieving for Noah the Queer Gorgon and will be reunited with him in death:

This death of the snake is also symbolic of Jack’s role as mirror and mystical key - old patterns within both Team Free Will and Chuck’s Multiverse must die, in order for newer and healthier ones to be born. Jack is the catalyst, the messenger, the Ouroboros, the Caduceus. 

In Jack’s new, vulnerable, state (with either some, or all, of his soul gone) he  banishes Lucifer back to the Empty in 14x17 Game Night after Nick (bleugh) tries to resurrect him, and he then burns Nick to a crispy cinder for good measure. Afterwards, Jack is tormented by Hallucifer (a vision of his father Lucifer in his mind). This is very possibly the actual Lucifer, communicating with Jack via the blood-link spell Nick performed, hoping to lead him astray. It certainly sounds like the actual Lucifer. It also, of course, mirrors Sam’s Hallucifer arc.

Distressed by Mary’s reaction to his incineration of Nick and taunted by Hallucifer, Jack loses control and (or so we are led to believe) kills Mary (in fact I think he’s blasted her unwittingly through a portal to an AU/ mirror universe, but that’s another story).

Now the crisis in Jack’s relationship with his adoptive fathers is set up. 

Dean, is the member of TFW who (as I explained above) has found it hardest to have compassion for the mirror-self whom Jack reflects back to him (young Dean with the weight of the world on his shoulders) and he determines Jack must be locked in the Ma’lak box and/ or killed. Sam and Cas, who have been better able to recognise themselves in Jack and so have compassion for him, dissent (but Sam’s hangover child-role to Dean’s father-role in their toxic co-dependency means he doesn’t initially stand up to Dean).  

Here is Jack, locked in the Ma’lak box (Jack in the Box 14x19) being tormented again by Hallucifer:

And, of course, that couldn’t contain him, so, deeply upset at being lied to by two of his three adoptive fathers, Jack busts out all glowy-eyed:

Chuck shows up to set Mount Moriah and Abraham and Isaac redux in motion , and Dean, possessed by his Shadow-self (the Ghost of John Winchester) gets ready to repeat history. 

A yellow-eyed “demon”has killed Mary Winchester (again) and Dean-as-John picks up Chuck’s weapon of RevengeTM (the Hammurabi - see my meta on Dean and his Shadow arc linked above for more on this).

But Jack, in his role as mirror and mediator between the Self and the Shadow. freely offers himself as a sacrifice, a scapegoat. 

And seeing this, at last, Dean has compassion, both for Jack and for his own mirror-child self, “murdered” by John Winchester’s revenge quest to get Yellow-Eyes/ Azazel. And so, he stays his hand.

Chuck, the bastard, kills Jack anyway and lights the fuse under Apocalypse III. 

But, because Jack is a metaphysical key and the symbol of transfomation (Ouroboros) he can move between all the realms of the God-machine. And so, Death has no true dominion, and we see Jack awaken (14x20 Moriah) in The Empty: 

There, he is greeted by a figure, presumbly the Cosmic Entity who presides over the place, as well as by Billie the New Death.

According to the Empty’s Cosmic Entity in 13x04 The Big Empty, “Before God and Amara, creation, destruction, Heaven, Hell, your precious little earth, what was there?... Nothing. Nothing but Empty... Angels and demons... you all come here when you die...  I’m the only one that has any pull here. Not Heaven, not Hell, not G-O-D himself.“

As with the Amara storyline (she is mapped to Sophia, the cosmic feminine God-principle) it seems Dabb is drawing on Gnosticism in his conception of The Empty. Jung was also fascinated by Gnosticism. 

The Gnostics made a distinction between the supreme unknowable Being, and the creator of the material universe, God, known as the Demiurge (who was often seen as amoral, even wicked). 

We don’t yet know whether Chuck has already merged with Amara, and is the double entity Chuck/ Amara or, whether her feminine God-principle will be instrumental in persuading him to finally end his story, and let Team Free Will and humanity become the authors of their own stories. The latter would make sense in Jung’s quaternity structure, and would be linked to my theory that Mary Winchester is not dead and will return to her sons before the end. 

Chuck, as the Demiurge, may perhaps be the mere avatar or emanation of the true supreme Godhood, if we take a Gnostic perspective. Whilst Chuck-the-Demiurge must be defeated, because he doesn’t want to relinquish control of the narrative, in his Supreme Godhood form, and/or merged Amara form, he may himself relinquish control and let Team Free Will go.   

Whether Jack is initially manipulated by The Empty, Death and/ or an awakened Lucifer and/or indeed AU!Michael, or joins forces with them (in their good faith) remains to be seen. Lucifer may (ugh, but definitely possible) get a redemption arc, as he has, despite his many evil deeds, undoubtedly been wronged by Chuck (forced to bear the Mark of Cain and thus become corrupted by it). 

Ultimately, I have no doubt that Jack, thanks to his loving connection to Team Free Will, will ultimately (as Cas has always believed) be “good for the world”:

(Jack and his three adoptive Dads in Unhuman Nature 14x07) 

 Jack, as the alchemical symbol of transformation (Ouroboros) as Mercury the mediator (Caduceus) between universes, between realms in the God-Machine, and between the conscious and the unconscious, and as the union of opposites (Michael and Lucifer, Good and Evil, Self and the Shadow), and as the trinity symbolising that unity (Sam, Dean and Cas merged as TFW) and as the quaternity (the ultimate integration [I hope] with the feminine principle symbolised by Mary and Amara) will, I believe, help usher in “Paradise” after the Apocalypse III; a “new Heaven and a new Earth, because the old Heaven and the old Earth had passed away” (Revelation) in which true free will reigns and Team Free Will have completed their psychic journeys. 

“Thus we have the “hostile brothers,” Christ and the devil, who were regarded as brothers in the Jewish-Christian tradition; the tetrameria into four parts or elements; the paired opposites and their ultimate unity; the parallel of the lapis and Mercurius with Christ and, because of the snake or dragon symbolism, also with the devil; and finally, the figure of Mercurius duplex and of the lapis, which unites the opposites indivisibly in itself.”

(Jung, Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self, 1979: p214)

https://www.jungiananalysts.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/C.-G.-Jung-Collected-Works-Volume-9ii_-AION_-Researches-into-the-Phenomenology-of-the-Self.pdf