Ara-Aiyê

the perception of being in Candomblé Ketu in dialogue with Jung’s Complex Psychology

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the perception of being in Candomblé Ketu in interlocution with Carl Gustav Jung's Complex Psychology. It starts from the hypothesis that both perspectives establish a multidimensional and integrated understanding of human existence, in which the body-soul relationship constitutes a dynamic unity. Methodologically, the research articulates an approach inspired by Juana Elbein dos Santos' perspective, grounded in the researcher's lived experience, with the method of symbolic amplification developed by Jung. The study analyzes the conception of Ara-Aiyê (body of the Earth), understood as the expression of the totality of the human being in Candomblé Ketu, highlighting how this cosmology perceives the individual as an integrated reality, constituted by the relationship among body, ancestry, collectivity, nature, and spirituality. The dialogue with Jungian Psychology, far from implying conceptual equivalence between the systems, enables symbolic approximations related to psychic totality, psychic energy, and the process of individuation. It is concluded that the recognition of the sophistication of this ancestral cosmology not only enables a deeper understanding of the phenomenology of the sacred but also offers an interpretive expansion for thinking about the human existence in contemporary Brazil, further serving as a tool to confront religious racism.