The Transcendent function (n.) is the passage from one attitude to another through a living symbol shaped by both opposites — “transcendent” meaning not metaphysical, only that it carries you across.
The Transcendent function (n.) is nothing mysterious: a combined function of conscious and unconscious elements, like a mathematical function of real and imaginary quantities, that takes one more step between the opposites each time they clash.
The Transcendent function (n.) is coming to terms with the unconscious — a true labour of action and suffering that bridges the gulf between rational and irrational.
The Transcendent function (n.) is a living third thing — not a logical stillbirth by tertium non datur, but a birth out of the suspension between opposites that leads to a new level of being.
The Transcendent function (n.) is the union of opposites consummated in symbols, out of which new situations and new conscious attitudes emerge — no recipe can produce it.
The Transcendent function (n.) is what happens when a conflict is neither suppressed nor solved but patiently suffered: the suspense rouses an answer from the unconscious, and one passes to a new condition.
The Transcendent function (n.) is the cooperation of conscious reasoning with the data of the unconscious, which progressively unites the opposites; it heals neurotic splits and underlay Hermetic philosophy for seventeen centuries.