The Twin Towers Revisited: Duality & Singularity
“The Twin Towers Revisited: Duality & Singularity” takes a look at the original and current World Trade Center towers, plus the Transportation Hub, from an archetypal image point of view.
The Twin Towers Revisited: Duality & Singularity
By: V. C. Renfroe
V. C. Renfroe holds an MA in Counseling Psychology with Emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute, Carpinteria, CA.
Figure 1. Twin Towers - World Trade Center, Lower Manhattan, NY, NY-
before their destruction on September 11th, 2001 (Svensson, n.d.).
Seven buildings, including the Twin Towers, comprised the World Center
Trade Center Complex, six of which circled the World Trade Center Plaza.
Building 7, also brought down on 9/11/2001, was located across Vesey St.
to the north.
At the end of September, 2001, I traveled to NYC and, along with a friend, rode the subway train to Manhattan’s Canal Street, which was the point at which service had been discontinued. The afternoon was fleeting, a misting rain setting in, as she and I set out toward ground zero. Light barricades had been placed along the near empty streets as guides. Before long, we encountered two police officers, minding what seemed like a pilgrimage path. They nodded acknowledgment of our presence, in apparent appreciation that we had come. A thundering dump truck passed behind them, and then another, and another, tangled wreckage loaded high.
To my surprise, the mammoth door to a fire station stood open, inviting visitors to enter. With reverence, we approached the interior wall on which photos hung, wreathed in flowers, of the multiple firefighters who perished in a valiant attempt to rescue victims trapped in the towers, all while the buildings were being destroyed. With few words spoken, we walked on.
Arriving blocks away but within view of the towers’ demolition site, this was as close as people were allowed to gather. Amidst a small group, who too had ventured to see, first hand, the towers’ remains, we stood on the sidewalk outside a large watch repair business, closed and eerily silent. White dust shrouded the sidewalk, the streets, and the entire interior of the repair shop, an open two-tiered design, with craftsmen’s work tables blanketed as if by snow.
In the waning light and through a soft rain, from our near yet distant vantage point, the remnants of one of the great towers came into view. The debris field seemed minimal relative to the original size of the tower, and the level of the ground appeared depressed. Despite the atmospheric perspective quality of the scene, the actions of cranes in ongoing clean-up work were visible, accompanied by the disquieting crashing of rubble being dropped into truck beds.
On our hike back along the then dark streets of Lower Manhattan, within the swirl of contradictions underlying my somber mood, the following thought took hold: They’re sure in a hurry to landfill the evidence from a crime scene. After the trip as I unpacked my suitcase, in a solemn moment I paused staring. My black faux-suede boots, dusted in sacred white, had carried home a trace of the evidence.
Figure 2. Twin Towers - World Trade Center, Lower Manhattan,
NY, NY (Svensson, n.d.).
There was always something special about the Twin Towers. Yes, they were iconic, engineering feats, and in their elegant simplicity, moors between land and sky. Quintessential New York.
And yet, in their twinning, it seemed another element was present. One less tangible, very old and abiding. Some have suggested a visual link between the towers and the pillars of Boaz and Jachin, guardians of the Temple of Solomon in Biblical history and primary in Masonic symbolism (Regal, 2023). While unproductive to argue the exclusive merits of only one interpretation, another image-association has captured and held my attention. To explore its relationship to the Twin Towers, we head down a brief analytical trail.
Figure 3. (Nikolova, n.d.)
Two-headed bust, From
‘Ain Ghazal, Jordan,
Around 6500 B.C., Plaster.
Images of the male and the female—pregnant Goddesses, twin Goddesses, the phallus, and the feminine-masculine symbol of the bull—abounded in the Neolithic (Eisler, 1987). See the following: (Catal Huyuk in Turkey, n.d.-b). The qualities of “caring, compassion, and nonviolence” (xvi), Riane Eisler, JD, PhD(h), the founder of The Center for Partnership Systems maintains, were not considered as exclusively female. Basing her determinations on the work of Professor Emeritus of Archaeology at UCLA Marija Gimbutas, Eisler cites archeological evidence which demonstrates that these cultures were not matriarchal nor female dominant but equalitarian.
As Gimbutas (1987, p. 25) tells us, the concept of doubling throughout history holds substantial meaning: “To express intensification, the cultures of Old Europe used images of doubles to indicate progressive duplication, and hence potency or abundance. This can be seen in the frequent use of double images of caterpillars or crescents, spirals, snakes, birds, and even goddesses.”
With regard to double-headed Goddess figurines, Gimbutas (1987, p. 29) states: “In most instances, one head is slightly higher than the other – a relationship which represents either a major and minor aspect of the Goddess or a mother-daughter pair.”
Advancing to the Renaissance, of significance is da Vinci’s The Virgin and Child With St. Anne. Painted after Mona Lisa, it is a work in which, according to German psychoanalyst Erich Neumann (1959/1966), da Vinci imaged a “magnificent new conception of the Holy Mothers” (p. 57).
Figure 4. The Virgin and Child With St.
Anne by Leonardo da Vinci, (Musee du
Louvre, Paris, n.d.), Oil on Wood, c.1510,
H. 1.68 m., W. 1.30 m., Louvre, Paris.
Figure 5. The Virgin and Child With
Saint Anne and John the Baptist by
Leonardo da Vinci, (National Gallery of
London, n.d.), (early study), Perhaps
about 1499 - 1500, Charcoal, black and
white chalk, on tinted paper, 141.5 x
104.6 cm., The National Gallery, London.
In this painting, said Neumann, youthful and mysterious St. Anne, traditionally the earthy, red-robed, green-mantled (red for love, green for nature) patron saint “of childbirth and mines” (p. 57), represents instead the Sophia or transformative aspect of the Feminine. Mary, who rests on her knee is the “ ‘elementary,’ ” the “maternal, containing, childbearing, nurturing, and protective” (p. 58) aspect of the archetypal Feminine. In da Vinci’s reversal of St. Anne’s and Mary’s roles, a shift, said Neumann, was being portrayed in which the “ ‘transformative’ character of the Archetypal Feminine” (p. 58) “outweighs” (p. 60) the more basic character.
The Greek deities Demeter and Kore, or Persephone (Mark, 2022), mother and daughter, Neumann (1959/1966) points out, are inherent in this maternal twinning, though St. Anne and Mary are both youthful and as such are feminine counterparts, available as a team. In the study entitled The Virgin and Child With St. Anne and John the Baptist, mother and daughter are presented as virtually “a two-headed figure” (p. 59), and as is the case with drawings or early studies, their images, in their freshness, contain the most psychic energy.
It can be argued that apparent in this dyad were the Neolithic twin goddesses. Yet, because their relationship to the elementary and transformative aspects is unknown, suffice to say da Vinci’s presentation of this feminine evolution was presaged in the Neolithic. In addition, it is noted that St. Anne-Sophia does not ensnare Mary in her arms as would a clinging, devouring mother. Rather, she maintains her own physical space, lovingly providing support for the nurturing Mary, engaged with her young son who tussles with a lamb.
In stark contrast to the foregoing images, models of duality, reciprocity, and partnership, now with respect to the World Trade Center, a singular spire reigns. Perhaps the steadily increasing rite of new and repeated injections, beginning at or before birth via the mother, colors my perception, but the One World Trade Center Freedom Tower, replete with a One World Observatory (One World Observatory, n.d.) for fun, food, and fabulous views, bears a strong resemblance to a shot syringe.
Figure 6. One World Trade Center,
(Parker, 2020), which replaced the Twin Towers. Opened Nov. 3rd, 2014.
Figure 7. Syringe (Danilevich, 2020),
“Take the shot. It’ll be fine.” (I and others
report statements like this dropped into
our thoughts.) Voice to Skull technology?
(Weinberger, 2008). Also see: singularity
(Barney & Zola, 2023) as well as "Dr.
James Giordano: The Brain is the
Battlefield of the Future." (Modern War
Institute, 2018).
More on the singularity, cited above, in a moment. First, it must be said, trade involves a mutually beneficial exchange between agreeing parties, and that may not be what the current One World Trade Center tower-image represents. In addition, a new transportation center was constructed at a cost of four billion dollars. It’s amazing how much damage collapsed buildings (NIST’s World Trade Center Investigation | NIST, 2021) can effect, necessitating such extensive above and below ground rebuilding.
Figure 8. World Trade Center Transportation Hub
(Thomas, 2017), Opened in 2016. One World Trade
Center looms above a metal vagina dentata splay.
For an in vivo example, see this: (Citizen, 2019).
No doubt there are those who would take issue with the position that the Hub models a negative and devalued view of the feminine, wishing to perceive the structure as a benign and progressive conception—with a central, and operable, skylight aperture arc, weather permitting. Nevertheless, if we afford consideration to the former and once again turn to Neumann, he sees in a one-sided and negative presentation of the feminine an attempt at “overcoming the fear of the Feminine and its dangerous aspect as the Great Mother and as the anima” (1994, p. 263). To the detriment of both male and female, the result is “defensiveness and contempt” for the stuff of the earth—woman, sex, instinct, and the earth itself, as well as the unconscious.
Under the sway of this fearful mindset, man is unavailable to the transformative qualities of the anima—the feminine aspect within his psyche. He is now a “spirit-man,” above earth’s realities. In the process of devaluing the Feminine, he splits the Feminine archetype into the opposites of angel—of the upper realm—and witch—of the dark, earthy region. Consequently, he does not come to terms with woman as equal but different, either in life or in his unconscious. By rejecting the Feminine as equal partner, he precludes his own evolution to wholeness.
Further, American psychologist, father of Archetypal Psychology and former President of the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich, James Hillman, explains that images are “effects of their co-relative causes,” and “have effects because of these causes” (p. 72). This means that “the archetype is in the image” (p.72). To more deeply grasp what is meant by archetype, French psychologist Elie G. Humbert (1988, pp. 95-96) states: “In 1910, Jung had already abandoned the idea that the psyche begins to take shape only after birth.” From Jung, Humbert then provides the following:
“ ‘Man “possesses” many things which he has never acquired but has inherited from his ancestors. He is not born as a tabula rasa, he is [merely] born unconscious. But he brings with him systems that are organized and ready to function in a specifically human way, and these he owes to millions of years of human development. . . . man brings with him at birth the ground-plan of his nature, and not only of his individual nature but of his collective nature. These inherited systems correspond to the human situations that had existed since primeval times; youth and old age, birth and death, sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, mating, and so on. Only the individual conscious experiences these things for the first time, but not the bodily system and the unconscious. (C.W. 4, par. 728).’ ”
“ ‘Over the whole of this psychic realm there reign certain motifs, certain typical figures which we can follow far back into history, and even into prehistory. . . . They seem to me to be built into the very structure of man’s unconscious, for in no other way can I explain why it is that they occur universally and in identical form. . . . (C.W. 16, par. 254).’ ”
As regards the Twin Towers, if indeed the image of a whole Feminine was split apart in their destruction, with the outcome being the erection of a single tower-pillar overlooking a distorted femininesque hub, in those actions a definitive statement is implied: These are your images now. This is the paradigm we promote.
Glancing back to 2001 and my trek to Lower Manhattan, despite the company of a longsuffering travel companion, at times the experience seemed solitary. Sometimes that’s how it is, each individual in his or her own thoughts, immersed in the elements of one’s surroundings, emotions seeping or flooding in, attention to the practical—blisters on feet, hair wet on neck, darkness enfolding—ebbed in contrast to the televised figures remembered in my mind’s eye, hurtling alone from the towers to their earthly end.
On that day the singularity (Barney & Zola, 2023) as a technological term was unknown to me. However, a college read of Huxley’s Brave New World had introduced, in fact seared into my awareness, a related dystopian concept and prediction. The singularity posits that the brain’s capability will be far outpaced by AI, forcing human acquiescence to transhumanism or be phased out. As consolation, one’s consciousness may be uploaded to a computer, enabling eternal life in a virtual world. This scheme sounds remarkably spirit-man in an arrogant wannabe-god attempt at creation.
Yuval Noah Harari, PhD, author and lecturer, World Economic Forum (WEF) member and contributor, speaks openly and with great certainty about the subcutaneous alterations already implemented in Homo sapiens. He credits the coronavirus as having created an opportunity for this exploit. WEF Founder and Executive Chairman, Prof. Schwab himself, waxes philosophical on the subject of genetic alterations which change whom we are. Have a listen: WEF member Dr. Yuval Noah Harari says “Human beings are hackable animals - free will is over,” (RealTruthRealNews, 2022).
What is more, it appears that individuals and their organizations engaged in an overwrite and potential elimination of the human species pay lip service to the wellbeing of people while they simultaneously gaslight, co-opt, and end run legitimate efforts at personal independence and cooperative alliances. Please see: (How to Harness the Transformative Potential of Public-private Partnerships, 2023). All told, this is dominator-dominated behavior, and in the context of infinity, smacks of extraordinarily short-term thinking.
We are players in a long game. Duality, understood as doubling—abundance—rather than scarcity, fertility rather than barrenness, is our birthright. A whole Feminine and a whole Masculine is vital for regeneration on this bountiful plain and in deed for the unfolding of our individual and collective potential.
Relationship matters; Anima Mundi—the soul of the world—speaks to us in ways seen and unseen, if we will take notice with humility and appreciation. Attention to our images matters, lest we—flesh-and-blood images—accept without question our own demolition.
In conclusion, we return to Hillman (p.74): “In fact, when Jung formulates his experience,” says Hillman, “he writes: ‘Image is psyche.’46 So, when I ask, ‘Where is my soul, how do I meet it, what does it want now?’ The answer is: ‘Turn to your images.’ ”
Figure 9. Relief out of greenish-grey
schist of a couple embracing (left side)
and Mother & Child (right side), (Fuller
& Fuller, 2012), Dated from 6000 to
5500 BC, Çatalhüyük, Turkey, Discovered
in shrine VI.A.30 and Measures 11.5 cm
in height.
Figure 10. The Twin
Towers of World Trade
Center in Manhattan,
New York, United States,
(Hill, n.d.), Twin towers,
twin goddesses,
twin mothers.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 1
Svensson, T. (n.d.). New York, NY, USA Monochrome Photo of City During Daytime [Photograph]. Pexels.
https://www.pexels.com/photo/monochrome-photo-of-city-during-daytime-3074526/
Figure 2
Svensson, T. (n.d.). Grayscale Photograph of High Rise Buildings
[Photograph]. Pexels.
https://www.pexels.com/photo/grayscale-photography-of-high-rise-buildings-3145755/
Figure 3
Nikolova, L., PhD. (n.d.). Two-headed bust. ’Ain-Ghazal: The Best of Prehistoric art. [Photograph of Artifact].
https://www.iianthropology.org/archaeologybestartprehistoryainghazal.html
Figure 4
da Vinci, L. The Virgin and Child With St. Anne.
[Photograph of painting] (n.d.).
Musée du Louvre, Paris. LeonardoDaVinci.net,
https://www.leonardodavinci.net/the-virgin-and-child-with-saint-anne.jsp#prettyPhoto
Figure 5
da Vinci, L. The Virgin and Child With Saint Anne and the Infant Saint John the Baptist
(The Burlington House Cartoon).
[Photograph of artwork] (n.d.). The National Gallery London Collections [On-line].
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/leonardo-da-vinci-the-burlington-house-cartoon
Figure 6
Parker, C. (2020) Modern skyscraper Freedom Tower placed in downtown of megapolis.
[Photograph]. Pexels.
https://www.pexels.com/photo/modern-skyscraper-freedom-tower-placed-in-downtown-of-megapolis-5847590/
Figure 7
Danilevich, O. (2020) A Person Holding a Syringe.
[Photograph]. Pexels.
https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-person-holding-a-syringe-5883829/
Figure 8
Thomas, A. (2017) A Low Angle Shot of a World Trade Center.
[Photograph]. Pexels.
https://pexels.com/photo/a-low-angle-shot-of-a-world-trade-center-8965971/
Figure 9
Fuller, M. & Fuller, N. (2012) Çatalhüyük Plaque, Man & Woman/Woman & Child Çatalhüyük, Turkey.
[Photograph of Artifact].
https://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/catalhuyuk.html
Figure 10
Hill, M. (n.d.). The Twin Towers of World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York, United States.
[Photograph]. Pexels.
https://www.pexels.com/photo/the-twin-towers-of-world-trade-center-in-manhattan-new-york-united-states-11660974/
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By V. C. Renfroe © 2024 – All Rights Reserved
