Exaltation enters the depth-psychology corpus along several distinct but overlapping axes. In astrological psychology, most notably in Cunningham’s work, it designates the traditional doctrine of planetary dignities — the sign in which a planet is held to function at its highest potential — while also serving as a heuristic for meditating on the proper sphere of each archetype. In theological and mystical literature traversing the Philokalia, John of Damascus, and New Testament scholarship (Thielman), exaltation names the post-crucifixion glorification of Christ: the movement from kenosis through death to divine enthronement, a paradox that makes degradation the necessary precondition of supreme elevation. Campbell extends this structure outward to a cosmological and aesthetic register, reading exaltation as the transformative upward movement of consciousness effected through art and myth — the Apollonian radiance that organises the relationship between the human and the divine. The Taoist I Ching tradition, via Wang Bi, frames exaltation as the ethical consequence of self-consolidation: the virtuous person who secures his inner ground thereby naturally rises. Across these traditions a common structural tension is legible: exaltation is never spontaneous self-promotion but always the outcome of a prior descent, purification, or sacrifice — a pattern that connects the concept indissolubly to transformation, mortification, and the logic of the opus.
Garforius’s composition is a very compact statement of the relationship of the arts to exaltations and transformations of consciousness.
Campbell identifies artistic exaltation as the structural mechanism by which Apollonian radiance organises the ascent of consciousness through aesthetic and mythological form.
, Transformations of Myth Through Time, 1990thesis
Jesus’ crucifixion cannot legitimately call into question Jesus’ unity with God but is, instead, the means by which Jesus returned to share fully in the glory of his Father.
Thielman argues that in the Johannine Gospel crucifixion functions not as degradation but as the very vehicle of exaltation, making death the passage into divine glory.
, Theology of the New Testament: A Canonical and Synthetic Approach, 2005thesis
He insists, however, that this suffering was the necessary path to his exaltation to ‘the right hand of the throne of God’ (12:2).
The author of Hebrews presents exaltation as the telos of voluntary suffering, establishing the kenotic logic that humiliation is the precondition of highest enthronement.
, Theology of the New Testament: A Canonical and Synthetic Approach, 2005thesis
Venus is in exaltation in Pisces, in fall in Virgo, and in detriment in Scorpio and Aries.
Cunningham uses the traditional doctrine of planetary exaltation as a meditative lens for understanding the optimal and impaired conditions of Venusian energy in the psyche.
, An Astrological Guide to Self-Awareness, 1982thesis
The use of these applications comes about by making one’s person secure, which allows for the subsequent exaltation of his virtue.
Wang Bi presents exaltation of virtue as an organic consequence of inner consolidation, linking the concept to Taoist ethics of self-grounding before outward activity.
, The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi, 1994thesis
the great exultation of the heart - a leap, bound or jump, the soaring flight of the living heart towards the sphere of the divine.
The Philokalia distinguishes two grades of spiritual exaltation — calm vibration and the violent upward surge of the heart — situating the term within the apophatic phenomenology of prayer.
, The Philokalia, Volume 4, 1995supporting
Another characteristic of the civilization of the time was the Baroque exaltation of princely personages.
Auerbach situates exaltation as a socio-aesthetic category, naming the Baroque elevation of the monarch as a cultural crystallisation of absolutist ideology.
, Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, 1953supporting
through our artistic exaltation we come finally to the Apollonian radiance that moves the three graces
Campbell presents artistic exaltation as the scalar ascent through musical-mythological registers that culminates in the Apollonian light governing the three Graces.
, Transformations of Myth Through Time, 1990thesis
prayer in beginners is the unceasing noetic activity of the Holy Spirit. To start with it rises like a fire of joy from the heart; in the end it is like light made fragrant by divine energy.
This passage traces the phenomenological precursors of exaltation in hesychast prayer — warmth, joy, and luminosity — framing the ascent as a progressive intensification of noetic activity.
, The Philokalia, Volume 4, 1995supporting
the superman of the Renaissance crystallized in the current idea of the monarch. The court of Louis XIV marks the climax in the development of absolutism
Auerbach contextualises the Baroque exaltation of princely figures as the historical apex of a long metaphorical tradition linking Renaissance virtu to absolutist mythology.
, Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, 1953aside