The question should be: how do we transcend duality? Even though we have, partially, defined “God” as the highest ideal, that only creates another ideal that would be the lowest. as Jung said: “The forces of nature are always two-faced, as is plainly the case with the God of Job.” (Symbols of Transformation: One). This is what happens when people define “God” as “good,” that immediately they are implying another equally opposite force, which would be an “evil” force that would be represented by the “Devil.” The issue lies in the fact that there’s no logical reason to assume that this “Devil” would be less powerful than God, which immediately makes “God” only half-mighty or even “less-mighty”.

That’s why, actually, since “God” and the Devil are two opposite sides of the same force, no one could say that “God” would be more powerful, only because it pleases someone’s dogmatic imagination.

Actually, this two-sided psychic force or energy is called: libido.

“As a power which transcends consciousness, the libido is by nature daemonic: it is both God and devil.” Symbols of Transformation: One.

It’s this force or energy of the psyche, this “dynamis” or power that is called libido that would more appropriately bear the title of God.

The manifestation of the highest ideal in opposition to the lowest ideal is a byproduct of psychic activity. It’s human nature itself, upon which, the idea of God (and the Devil) manifests, and even forces itself in the history of mankind, whether in advanced civilizations or in primitive tribes. Since it’s actually, the archetypal manifestation of mankind’s own libido.

In his “Answer to Job,” Jung interprets that Satan is simply the other side of “God.” Here we have to remember that “Satan” in Jewish traditions, is not the ultimate principle of evil, as it’s imagined in Christianity.

Actually, the Jewish god openly boasts that he is the creator of good and evil (“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” Isaiah 45:7). Rather, it was in late and heretic Jewish groups that the idea of another “evil deity” was formed, in the names of Belial/Beliar, Samael, Mastema, and others, probably because of the embarrassment of having a god that is, at least, partially evil. This embarrassment is even clearer in the translations that hide the actual meaning of the Hebrew “ra,” behind the words “calamity” or “disaster,” when that word literally means “to be evil or bad.”

In any case, the point is that Jung interprets “evil” as the works of God’s other side upon Job.

“God, so the poet gives us to understand, has simply shown his other side for once, the side we call the Devil, and let loose all the terrors of Nature upon the unfortunate Job. The God who created such monstrosities, at the very thought of which we poor weak mortals stiffen with fear, must certainly harbour within himself qualities which give one pause. This God dwells in the heart, in the unconscious. That is the source of our fear of the unspeakably terrible, and of the strength to withstand the terror. Man, that is to say his conscious ego, is a mere bagatelle, a feather whirled hither and thither with every gust of wind, sometimes the sacrificed and sometimes the sacrificer, and he cannot hinder either. The Book of Job shows us God at work both as creator and destroyer. Who is this God? An idea that has forced itself upon mankind in all parts of the earth and in all ages and always in similar form: an otherworldly power which has us at its mercy, which begets and kills, an image of all the necessities and inevitablenesses of life. Since, psychologically speaking, the God-image is a complex of ideas of an archetypal nature, it must necessarily be regarded as representing a certain sum of energy (libido) which appears in projection.” Symbols of Transformation: One.

Therefore, God and Devil are the two faces of the psychical energy called libido, which on one side is creative, but on the other side is destructive. However, transcending duality, it’s not simply about “destroying” the side that is considered “bad.” Since thinking in that way would mean being still trapped in duality. Actually, transcending is about recognizing that the libido has a purpose, that is reaching psychical unity.

This absolute unity is reached by the dialectical movement that starts from a potential or primordial state of unconsciousness, which by sublation, reaches the absolute consciousness. Here, it’s interesting to notice that the Hegelian concept of sublation, into which the thing-in-itself reflects upon the thing-for-itself, does not imply the “destruction” of the latter, the so-called antithesis. Rather, sublation implies assimilation. That is to say, solving the opposition by means of integrating the thing-for-itself into a more elevated concept, that unites the opposites.

In Jungian terms, this would mean reconciling with the shadow, in order to reach the completion of the Self. It’s this psychical dynamic that is represented, spontaneously, into religious symbols, in the Christian case, in the symbols of God and Devil.