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look at different Christian or Islamic groups. But if we look deeper, and with an open mind, we begin to see common threads. We begin to see the religious archetypes.

Jung touched on this in his psychology. Yet again and again he proclaimed himself to be a psychologist not a theologian and distanced himself from any religious implications of his teachings. Jung did say that, from a purely psychological point of view, it made no difference what the patients belief system was. All were valid and equally beneficial, again psychologically speaking.

I have no such reservations of putting my feet into the pool of theology, and even causing a few ripples. A man can not be divided mind and spirit. His psychology and spirituality are intimately woven together. It is my conjecture that at the base of all religious and philosophical beliefs are spiritual archetypes that form a basis for a common, universal belief system. Not a religion but religion itself.

I have, like Jung, spent years studying many different belief systems, from eastern religions to western mysticism and from paganism to Christianity. My personal frame of reference, and I will assume most of my readers, is traditional Judeo/Christian ideas. That will form the base of all and I will show why I think it should be so.

First I will agree whole heartedly with Jung that a persons inherent belief system, or their cultural background, will have no bearing on the validity of the religious archetypes. As Jung showed in his clinical work, individual beliefs have little consequence while the fact of having beliefs is tantamount. Some Christians may accuse me of being a Universalist and diluting the Gospel message while those of other religions will no doubt see me as another evangelist trying to convert them to Christianity and draw them away from their traditional beliefs. Neither case is true, but I will not defend my own beliefs, only offer my insight into religious truth itself.

In my study I have found some very basic ideals, archetypes, that are shared by all belief systems. Each of these, in keeping with Jungian theory, have an opposite or shadow aspect. The most basic of these is the ideal of an ultimate truth that transcends our concept of time and space and even reality itself.

In pagan religions this is objectified as a force or even as the universe itself. Something even the 'gods' can not alter. I monotheistic religions it is personified as the ultimate God, the Creator. The shadow of this ultimate would

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