Carl Jung: The feminine mind is pictorial and symbolic and comes close to what the ancients called Sophia.

To Dr. S.

Dear Colleague, 22 March 1935

The working out of the dreams you sent me contains all the viewpoints needed for their interpretation.

In other words, you have found an adequate interpretation through your discussion of them.

I would only add that there is obvious alteration of the anima figure.

That may also be the reason why she seems to vanish away.

She disappears in her earlier form and grows clearer in another, which very often happens in the course of this process.

She can change from a child into an old woman and from an animal into a goddess.

If she is old, this is an indication that one's consciousness has become considerably more childish.

If she is young, then one is too old in one's conscious attitude.

The puerilization of the conscious attitude should not be understood as a regression; it is often necessary in order to produce an unprejudiced, naive, receptive consciousness.

This is needed to understand the spiritual side of the anima figure.

I won't say anything more about this so as not to anticipate your further work along these lines.

The psoriasis of the anima figure is due to certain contents which the anima has within her, as though in the blood, and which sweat out on the surface.

This is also indicated by the snakelike patterns of the psoriasis.

It is a kind of painting that appears on the skin.

Very often this points to the need to portray certain contents or states graphically, and in colour.

This is sometimes necessary because they cannot be grasped conceptually but only concretely.

This "art" activity is also indicated by the fact that the anima discovers all sorts of feminine handicrafts in her trunk.

That is to say, all these works of the anima are products of the feminine mind in a man.

The feminine mind is pictorial and symbolic and comes close to what the ancients called Sophia.

No fee required.

With best regards,

Yours sincerely,

C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Page 189

Carl Jung: These are the demands I put to a pupil.

To Otto Korner

Dear Colleague, 22 March 1935

Thank you for your letter.

I am in some doubt as to whether the faithful account you have given of the meaning of my psychology will be properly understood by anyone who, coming to it from outside, has not the necessary knowledge to understand what it is really all about.

To such people I usually say nothing about its deeper intentions and its background, but apprise them of the fact that for many years there has been an English Seminar in Zurich.

Moreover I hold public lectures and from the next semester on I have a seminar for students.

In addition, I have undertaken numerous training analyses myself or have had them undertaken by my pupils.

If nothing of this sort has been organized in Germany, it is chiefly because the Germans have noticed much later than the Anglo-Saxons that there are other psychic things besides the intellect.

Also, as you know, there are still very few people in Germany nowadays who are capable of looking beyond this.

To me, it is just this academic restriction to the intellect that makes anti-Semitism explicable.

To my mind it would be an advantage if you told Prof. X. what my views are about the training course.

In this connection I have sent a memorandum to Prof. Goring.

Above all, I demand knowledge of clinical psychiatry and of organic nervous diseases.

Secondly a training analysis, a certain amount of philosophical education, + study of primitive psychology, 5. of comparative religion, 6. of mythology, 6. of analytical psychology, beginning with knowledge of the diagnostic association technique, the technique of interpreting dreams and fantasies, 8. training of one's own personality, i.e., development and differentiation of functions which are in need of education.

These are the demands I put to a pupil.

Naturally there are only a few people who can fulfil them, but I have long ago given up producing manufactured articles.

Above all, I don't want to evoke the impression that I think psychotherapy is intellectual child's play, and I always take pains to make it clear to people that real knowledge of the human
psyche requires not only a vast amount of learning but a differentiated personality.

In the last resort the psyche cannot be handled with any one technique, and in psychotherapy it is just the psyche we are dealing with and not with any old mechanism that can be got at with
equally mechanistic methods.

One should therefore avoid giving the impression that psychotherapy is an easy technique.

Such a view undermines the dignity and prestige of our science, which I regard as the highest of them all.

With best regards,

Yours sincerely,

C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Page 187-189

Carl Jung: Then after the war a whole lot of Germans, especially teachers, came to me for training in practical psychology.

To Poul Bjerre

Dear Colleague, 11 January 1935

As I have a virtually international practice and the views regarding psychotherapy1 are very different from ours especially in Anglo-Saxon

countries, I very early-that is, more than 20 years ago-found myself in the position of training people for psychotherapy who were able to work in their own countries as consulting psychologists or practical psychologists at paedagogic institutes or as free practitioners.

Then after the war a whole lot of Germans, especially teachers, came to me for training in practical psychology.

A large number of such lay psychologists work together with doctors and I must emphasize that this collaboration has generally had very favourable results.

The very fact that four eyes see more than two, and that teachers or even educated laymen often possess an understanding of practical psychology that should not be underestimated, is often of the greatest assistance to the work of the doctor.

I have therefore, as you know, several times publicly advocated that a special standing should be created for practical psychologists who supplement the doctor's work in paedagogics and the social sciences.

From the medical side it would be an unwarrantable presumption to think that the human psyche is an object for exclusively medical influence.

Nervous patients just as often need a bit of quite ordinary education and training to learn how to cope better with their psychic complications.

Every surgeon has one or more efficient theatre nurses who work under his direction and who usually perform much better than his assistants.

Given time, we shall reach a similar situation in psychotherapy.

I find it positively irresponsible of doctors simply to ignore the tremendous spread of psychological knowledge in our day and to try to keep psychotherapy an exclusively medical preserve.

In that way they merely create a psychological movement split off from medicine in the field of general paedagogics, which is then of necessity completely outside the doctor's control.

I therefore take every available opportunity of advocating that all pedagogically minded psychotherapists, clergymen, and educationists in the stricter sense should work together instead of against each other, but every time I meet with the highly inopportune and shortsighted resistance of the doctors.

I hope I have now fulfilled your wish to know what my position is.

With collegial regards,

Yours sincerely,

C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Pages 183-183

Carl Jung: In itself the fact of having frequent dreams is not abnormal.

To P. Schmid

Dear Herr Schmid, 21 December 1934

In itself the fact of having frequent dreams is not abnormal.

There are very many people who have a very active dream life, but this could not be said to be in any way extraordinary or pathological.

If, on the other hand, people who ordinarily dream very little suddenly get into a phase of dreaming very much, this is a sure sign that an overloading
of the unconscious has set in, usually because there is a problematical situation which the dreamer has tended to overlook or has not mastered.

In such cases one can say that the unconscious would have all sorts of things to contribute to his conscious life provided he understood what the unconscious meant.

But even such an activation of the unconscious is not in itself a pathological phenomenon.

Only when the dreamer is basically disturbed by the dreams, for instance in sleeping, or feels nervous the next day, can one speak of a real disturbance of the psychic equilibrium.

But that is not in itself a disquieting fact either, for the equilibrium can often be temporarily upset without there being any fear of a more deep-seated injury.

Yours truly,

C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Page 182

Carl Jung and Answer to Job

Carl Jung: In the last resort every individual alone has to win his battle, nobody else can do it for him.

To S. Malkinson

Dear Sir, 12 June 1933

I'm afraid there will be little hope in the future as I have to reducemy time spent on the treatment of patients next October.

The reason is that I have to give lectures here and in Germany and this occupation will take a great deal of my time.

It is true, I don't deny my sympathy to suffering humanity, but I am only one man against a host of patients and it is just impossible that one man can do the whole job.

It is a mistake when you think that only the authority in this field could help you.

You have a mind just as well as any other human being and you can use it if you only know how to apply it.

Any of my pupils could give you so much insight and understanding that you could treat yourself if you don't succumb to the prejudice that you receive healing through others.

In the last resort every individual alone has to win his battle, nobody else can do it for him.

Sincerely yours,

C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Page 127

Carl Jung: The snag is that an international movement can only come into being if everyone goes along with it.

To J. H. van der Hoop

Dear Colleague, 19 January 1935

With regard to the negotiations for the next Congress I have asked the Swiss representative of the secretariat, Dr. Meier, to send you the programme as it looks at present.

The preparations are bedevilled by all sorts of difficulties.

Not only have very different wishes to be considered, but one must also reckon with the withdrawal of delegates and much else besides.

Naturally I would be very pleased if someone from Switzerland could be found for lectures. . . . The few younger people who are on my side are not yet representative enough to be considered.

I myself have my good reasons for keeping in the background because of the preconceived opinion that I am a mere antipode of Freud and Adler.

Consequently one is exposed to all sorts of misunderstandings which are no encouragement to general collaboration.

I have done my utmost to prevent nationalistic outbursts at the International Congress and to create a basis of a purely scientific nature, but if you have seen Gauger's book you will understand that my efforts are meeting with very great difficulties.

The snag is that an international movement can only come into being if everyone goes along with it.

But if everyone holds back and waits to see whether it will come into being or not, naturally nothing happens.

Recognizing this fact, I have not hesitated to place myself at the disposal of such a movement in the hope that other sensible people will do the same.

For it is solely up to us to put an international movement on its feet.

If we attempt such an undertaking at all under the existing circumstances, we cannot do it without Germany.

The "neutrals" are too weak and moreover the repercussions of the present political situation and of the psychic epidemic that has broken out in Germany would reach us in some form in the end.

It therefore seems to me better to take the bull by the horns and to confer directly with the Germans.

Here in Switzerland I have succeeded after much effort in bringing together a number of doctors and psychologists so that a meeting can

take place on Jan. 22nd to celebrate the founding of the Swiss national group.

Not one of the older psychotherapists is attending since practically all of them prefer to live in sectarian seclusion.

In my humble opinion a "sufficiently international beginning" has been made, so that, if every national group is really willing to join in, an International Society is altogether possible.

That this Society is not at present all-embracing is certainly not the fault of our intentions but of political conditions beyond our control, and also of the undoubted sectarian tendency of psychotherapists to go it alone.

Again it is up to us to do our utmost to combat these pathological symptoms.

So far as my lectures in Amersfoort are concerned, I am quite willing to give a lecture at the Dutch Society of Psychotherapy on "Principles of Practical Psychotherapy."

As to the other lectures in Amersfoort, I have arranged with Dr. van der Water that there should be a kind of seminar where fundamental concepts will be debated.

From what he says I have the impression that it will not be an exclusively medical public, and I therefore had a general exposition of the complex theory and of practical dream analysis in mind, since I was of the opinion that specifically medical questions about indicia etc. should be reserved for the discussion.

I should be grateful if you would let me know whether this plan meets with your approval.

You must remember that the nature of these Amersfoort proceedings is completely new and unknown to me.

With kind regards,

Yours sincerely,

C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Pages 184-185

Carl Jung: So this is probably a historic detail in the life of Zarathustra.

We must go a little into the history of that Zoroastrian belief because it plays a certain role in the symbolism of the book. Zarathustra is almost
a legendary figure, yet there are certain notions about him which prove that he must have been a real person who lived in a remote age.

It is not possible to place him exactly either geographically or chronologically, but he must have lived between the seventh and ninth centuries
B.c. probably in north-western Persia.

He taught chiefly at the court of a king or prince named Vishtaspa.

(The Greek form of this name is Hystaspes, which you may remember was the name of the father of Darius I.)

The story says that Zarathustra first became acquainted with the two ministers at the Court of Vishtaspa, and through them with the noble queen whom he converted, and then through her he converted the king.

This is psychologically a very ordinary proceeding, it usually happens that way.

One of the most successful propagandists of early Christianity in high circles was the Pope Damasus I, whose nickname was matronarum auriscalpius, meaning the one who tickles the ears of the noble ladies; he used to convert the nobility of Rome through the ladies of the noble families.'

So this is probably a historic detail in the life of Zarathustra.

Then in contradistinction to certain other founders of religions, he married and lived to be quite old.

He was killed by soldiers, while standing near his altar, on the occasion of the conquest of his city. ~Carl Jung, Zarathustra Seminar, Pages 4-5

You searched for youtube - Carl Jung Depth Psychology

You searched for youtube - Carl Jung Depth Psychology

[940 more YouTube Followers on YouTube are needed.  Thank you]

Carl Jung and 'What I have to tell about the Hereafter...' - Carl Jung Depth Psychology

Carl Jung and 'What I have to tell about the Hereafter...' - Carl Jung Depth Psychology: [Carl Jung and “What I have to tell about the Hereafter…”] What I have to tell about the hereafter, and about life after death, consists entirely of memories, of images in which I have lived and of thoughts which have buffeted me. These memories in a way also underlie my works; for the …

Carl Jung - I Understood how important it is to affirm one's own destiny. - Carl Jung Depth Psychology

Carl Jung - I Understood how important it is to affirm one's own destiny. - Carl Jung Depth Psychology: [Carl Jung – I Understood how important it is to affirm one’s own destiny.] Something else, too, came to me from my illness. I might Formulate it’s an affirmation of Things As They are: an unconditional “yes” to That Which is, without protests Subjective acceptance of the conditions of existence as I see them …

Carl Jung on the 'Feminine.' - YouTube - Carl Jung Depth Psychology

Carl Jung on the 'Feminine.' - YouTube - Carl Jung Depth Psychology: Carl Jung on the “Feminine” – YouTube

Carl Jung Depth Psychology - Life, Work and Legacy of Carl Jung

Carl Jung Depth Psychology - Life, Work and Legacy of Carl Jung: Life, Work and Legacy of Carl Jung

Carl Jung: Genesis represents the act of becoming conscious as a taboo infringement,

Genesis represents the act of becoming conscious as a taboo infringement, as though knowledge meant that a sacrosanct barrier had been impiously overstepped.

I think that Genesis is right in so far as every step towards greater consciousness is a kind of Promethean guilt: through knowledge, the gods are as it were robbed of their fire, that is, something that was the property of the unconscious powers is torn out of its natural context and subordinated to the whims of the conscious mind.

The man who has usurped the new knowledge suffers, however, a transformation or enlargement of consciousness, which no longer resembles that of his fellow men.

He has raised himself above the human level of his age ("ye shall become like unto God"), but in so doing has alienated himself from humanity.

The pain of this loneliness is the vengeance of the gods, for never again can he return to mankind.

He is, as the myth says, chained to the lonely cliffs of the Caucasus, forsaken of God and man. ~Carl Jung, CW 9i, Para 243

And yet the attainment of consciousness was the most precious fruit of the tree of knowledge, the magical weapon which gave m.an victory over the earth, and which we hope will give him a still greater victory over himself, ~Carl Jung, CW 14, Para 289

The man who has attained consciousness of the present is solitary.

The "modern" man has at all times been so, for every step towards fuller consciousness removes him further from his original, purely animal participation mystique with the herd, from submersion in a common unconsciousness.

Every step forward means tearing oneself loose from the maternal womb of unconsciousness in which the mass of men dwells. ~Carl Jung, CW 10, Para 150

Before the bar of nature and fate, unconsciousness is never accepted as an excuse; on the contrary there are very severe penalties for it. ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Para 745

Carl Jung: It seems as if one-half of the world had been made by an engineer and the other half by a foolish poet.

Dr. Adler: There is a custom in Germany of putting children in the rain in spring so that they may grow quicker.

Dr. Jung: Exactly. You see rain in popular superstition is used as a charm, it is magic, and that is not to be rationalized; it is an entirely psychological effect.

You can say that is only a poetic idea, but it is a fact, it is poetic mana.

It seems as if one-half of the world had been made by an engineer and the other half by a foolish poet.

So the giant is strengthening his hair by receiving that mana; it is like watering his flower beds, he is making it grow.

And what about the hair in itself?

Mrs. Deady: In the story of Samson, his hair was his strength.

Dr. Jung: Yes, when his hair was cut he lost his power.

Hair is supposed to be a sign of strength.

Therefore a person with very thick strong hair is assumed to be temperamentally strong, particularly passionate, or brutal, or a sexual hero.

Then the hair has much to do with the head, and therefore people, especially women, have always been very keen about hairdressing.

Primitive women sometimes arrange their hair in a very elaborate way, and not only women, but men also.

One sees in Africa astounding fantasies upon the heads of those people, built up with the aid of clay and wax and all sorts of things. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 313

Carl Jung: I would be very chary of the assumption of "make-believe."

To Dr. S.

Dear Colleague, 28 January 1935

Your question about dreams relates to the little explored problem of the attitude of the dreamer to what is dreamt.

There are various levels of realization, different degrees of intensity and enfeeblement of the dream experience.

So far as I can judge, it seems that a certain degree of waking consciousness is correlated with an inner distance from the dream event; in other words, when I am on the point of awaking from a dream, this expresses itself in a kind of pushing away of the dream experience, so that it looks as if someone else were experiencing the dream and I were getting only a report of it.

Conversely, it very often happens that at the beginning of a dream one merely experiences something like a cinema show, or that one knows something has been said earlier, or that one has maintained an opinion, and that only with deeper sleep does one enter into the real action as an active protagonist.

Then, suddenly, one is in the dream.

I would be very chary of the assumption of "make-believe."

I have good reasons for doubting whether there is such a thing in dreams at all.

With best regards,

Yours sincerely,

C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Pages 185-186

Carl Jung: I would strongly advise you to do this bit of analysis with a woman,

Anonymous

Dear Fraulein N., 23 May 1935

As it is at the moment essentially a question of consolidating your personality,

I would strongly advise you to do this bit of analysis with a woman, since experience has shown that analysis with a man always has an effect on the animus, which for its part loosens up the personality again, whereas analysis with a woman tends on the contrary to have a "precipitating" effect.

With best regards,

Yours sincerely,

C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Pages 190-191

Carl Jung and Philemon

Carl Jung: But had that "I" been created or did it just happen?

Carl Jung: “does man feel himself to have been created or not”?




"Homo creatus est" means that man was created.

We are inclined to turn our backs smilingly on such a statement, thinking naturally enough of the first chapter of Genesis.

But it is really a psychological declaration of the first importance: does man feel himself to have been created or not?

Natural science holds that man has developed, through long generations of pre-human ancestors.

This is, of course, a process of nature, not a human activity.

Do we feel that we have created ourselves or have we rather found ourselves?

Most people feel the latter, one day we found ourselves and said "I" for the first time.

But had that "I" been created or did it just happen?

This is quite a different question and a very difficult one. Our feeling gives us no answer.

We can only say that we gradually discovered ourselves with our gifts, our vices, our qualities and our imperfections.

No proofs lie to our hand whether this conglomeration had a purpose, an intention, behind it, or whether it was the result of blind chance.

Speaking generally, neither our own feeling nor natural science can assure us that there is any kind of purpose behind.

But if we leave general conclusions and seek out individuals with a long and ripe experience of life and ask them: "Do you feel you are the result of chance, or do you feel that something of some kind was at work in you, that created you as you are?"

Astonishingly many of such individuals will reply that they have the feeling of something at work which led them, of an inner meaning, an inner guidance, which curiously enough has made them what they are.

Is such a statement simply a subjective phantasy or are there scientific proofs?

We must answer: there is the fact that the unconscious, the unconscious psyche, is older than the conscious.

The child's psyche is unconscious, an animal psyche if you like to express it that way, and very gradually a conscious condition develops.

Things which we do not know today, which we shall only know in the future, exist already in the unconscious.

There are actual proofs that this is so. If we follow a series of dreams through months or years, we can see a thought appearing of which the dreamer is totally unaware and which he cannot see till, perhaps years afterwards, it breaks through into his consciousness.

One is, therefore, justified in saying that the unconscious knew it long before the conscious.

Then the question arises: "Has the unconscious consciousness of its own?" ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Pages 212-213.

Carl Jung: He is still in a sorry condition, for Hades is a gloomy place.

To Count Hermann Keyserling

Dear Count, 25 August 1928

The negative relationship to the mother is always an affront to nature, unnatural.

Hence distance from the earth, identification with the father, heaven, light, wind, spirit, Logos.

Rejection of the earth, of what is below, dark, feminine.

Negative relationship to material things, also to children.

Flight from personal feelings.

On the subjective level the "father" is an imago: the image of your relationship to the father and to everything he stands for.

In your dream this imago is dark, on the point of disappearing; that is to say a different attitude to the father imago is brewing (and to everything it stands for).

Your one-sided spiritual tendency is probably meant, for anyone whose stature requires the size of a continent is not so very far away from Father Heaven (Zeus).

This is too much for our human stature.

It is an inflation by the universal, supra-personal spirit.

(Originally this was forced on you by the negative attitude of your mother.)

This spiritual inflation is compensated by a distinct inferiority of feeling, a real undernourishment of your other side, the feminine earth (Yin) side, that of personal feeling.

Hence your feeling appears in negative form, as an obsessive symptom == fear of starvation. Symptoms are always justified and serve a purpose.

Because of your negative relation to the earth side there is a danger of actual starvation; you arouse enmity because you give out no warm feeling but merely autoerotic emotions which leave other people cold, also you are ruthless and tactless in manner.

But your inferior feeling is genuine, hence anyone who sees behind your heavenly cloak with its ten thousand meteors has confidence in you. (There aren't many
of them.)

By having too much libido in the father imago you give the spirit of your father too much blood, therefore he cannot get out of the chthonic shadow world into non-spatiality (eternal rest) as he would like to.

c

One shouldn't attach the dead to the living, otherwise they both get estranged from their proper spheres and are thrown into a state of suffering.

Yours very sincerely,

Jung, ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Pages 52-53

Carl Jung: There are things which are simply incomprehensible to the tough brains of our race and time.

To J. B. Rhine

Dear Dr. Rhine, 20 May 1925

I was glad to be able to contribute to your researches, but being of a less optimistic outlook than you Americans I never put my experiences on show.

I have learned too much from the past in that respect.

There are things which are simply incomprehensible to the tough brains of our race and time.

One simply risks being taken for crazy or insincere, and I have received so much of either that I learned to be careful in keeping quiet.

I would ask it as a favour from every psychologist in Europe not to put that photograph on the wall, but since North Carolina is very far away from Europe, so far away, indeed, that probably very few are even aware of the existence of a Duke University, I shall not object.

I have found that there are very few people who are interested in such things from healthy motives and fewer still who are able to think about such and similar matters, and so in the course of the years I arrived at the conviction that the main difficulty doesn't consist in the question how to tell, but rather in how not to tell it.

Man's horror now is so great that in order not to lose his modest brain capacity he always prefers to treat the fellow who disturbed him as crazy.

If you are really serious in teaching people something good, you must do your best to avoid such prejudices.

Those are the reasons why I prefer not to communicate too many of my experiences.

They would confront the scientific world with too upsetting problems.

Sincerely yours,

C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Page 190

Carl Jung on "Parapsychological Phenomena"

In more than one occasion Dr. Jung talked about parapsychological phenomena.

He said he felt that the observed phenomena could only be explained with the hypothesis that time is a psychic phenomenon, i.e., a conditioning of our psyches, or of our consciousness.

If one can once get outside this ego conditioning, time becomes entirely relative, and the present moment is as if eternal.

This observation, however, does not tell us anything about immortality, or life after death.

It refers only to the quality of our experience.

He gave as evidence the variable length of experience of a measured period of time.

There is also the experience of long-continued happenings in dreams.

And the story Zimmer told of the ahant who wanted to know the karma of Vishnu and was sent to get water, then met a maiden and lived a whole lifetime, and, when he returned, found the god just finishing his cigarette!-or something of the sort.

C. G. said it was to explain such things that he formulated his theory of synchronicity, viz., that everything that occurs in any one moment is, in some way, an expression of that particular, unique moment in time, which never was before and will never recur.

He explained the falling of the yarrow sticks for the I Ching in this way.

Then he recounted several happenings that had an aptness of coincidence which caused the greatest surprise and wonder.

For instance: the woman whose dreams had held much sexual material, which she kept trying to explain symbolically, till C. G. felt he really must enlighten her; and at the next appointment two sparrows fluttered to the ground at her feet and "performed the act."

Or the patient who dreamed of a scarab, and one flew at the window ....

Then he spoke of ESP experiences, dreams of events still unknown to the dreamer, which subsequently do occur.

These dreams usually only come when the news is close at hand, rather than at the moment of occurrence ....

He related several experiences having to do with psychic phenomena connected with death of persons at a distance.

There sometimes were what he called "spooks" about; cracklings and snappings in furniture.

Occasionally, he had warning dreams about a person who was about to die, or. he felt an unseen presence at the time of their departure.

He twice dreamed of Baynes after his death, each time in connection with Churchill, and each time when Churchill was actually in Switzerland, though C. G. did not know this at the time. For
instance, he dreamed that he was sitting at a dinner table with Churchill or Roosevelt when a group of English officers, among whom was Baynes, in civilian clothes, came in.

At this time Churchill had landed near Zurich for his plane to refuel on his way to Africa.

A second dream was similar to the first, except that Roosevelt was not there.

This time, Churchill was spending one night in Geneva on his way to Yalta.

He told us a lot about this visit and his contact with Churchill.

He told us that in 1934 he had gone to Bollingen to work and had put up his yellow flag to warn Professor Fierz that he was not "at home."

He was unable to work, however.

He felt terribly depressed.

A heavy cloud seemed to oppress him.

But he kept his flag up and struggled with the oppression all day Sunday and into Monday.

At last, he pulled down the flag, feeling it was no use trying to work any longer.

Immediately, Professor Fierz came over and told him of the Nazi purge, which had taken place on Sunday morning.

He spoke of exteriorized libido: how, when there was an important idea that was not yet quite conscious, the furniture and woodwork all over the house creaked and snapped, and that Mrs. Jung was aware of it as well as he.

One time there came a sharp snap at the door just as he was falling asleep.

This was repeated, and it woke him quite up.

Then, as he began to fall asleep again, he had a vision of a fish, and, just as he lost consciousness, his wardrobe gave a great crack.

He opened his eyes to see a large fish emerging from the top corner.

He told us of his hallucinations of the Ravenna mosaics.

When they went into the piscina, he and Miss Wolff, there was a misty blue light, and through it they saw the mosaics.

They stood and discussed them for about half an hour and were amazed to find the Peter symbol, Peter walking on the water and being rescued by ·Christ, combined with the others (Moses bringing water from the rock; Jonah and the whale; the miraculous draft of fishes).

He came back and narrated this in the seminar (of 1929?).

When Dr. Meier was going to Ravenna, a year or two later, C. G. told him he must not fail to see the mosaics and to get him pictures of them, for he and Miss Wolff had failed to find any
in the town. (I was present at that seminar).

When Dr; Meier returned, he told C. G. that no such mosiacs existed.

He could not believe it.

It was only some years later that he ran across the story of the countess who had vowed to make such a gift of mosaics if she were delivered from shipwreck.

The mosaics were made, but were destroyed by fire while in nearby St. Giovani's Church.

Jung learned that a sketch does exist, but he has not seen it ....

Another time, he talked about "haunted houses."

In Africa once he heard music and the sound of people talking, though he could not distinguish the words.

The natives told him, "Those are the people who talk."

This occurred more than once to him.

And other travellers also have reported such experiences.

Always at these places there are evidences that there has at some past time been a settlement-for example, there are plants there only grown under cultivation .... ~Esther Harding, Conversations with Jung, Pages 13-14

Carl Jung and Sabina Spielrein

Carl Jung and Toni Wolff

Carl Jung: Memories, Dreams and Reflections

Carl Jung: Then whatever you learn in analysis will happen to you in reality.

Miss Hannah: How much would it help the patient if she should get back into the body? Would she be able to understand it or would she have to begin all over?

Dr. Jung:

Anything experienced outside of the body has the quality of being without body; so you must experience the whole thing over again, it must come in a new way.

Then whatever you learn in analysis will happen to you in reality.

It must be like that, because you are the point of identity, you are the one that experiences analysis and the one that experiences life.

Whatever you experience outside of the body, in a dream for instance, is not experienced unless you take it into the body, because the body means the here and now.

If you just have a dream and let it pass by you, nothing has happened at all, even if it is the most amazing dream; but if you look at it with the purpose of trying to understand it, and succeed in understanding it, then you have taken it into the here and now, the body being a visible expression of the here and now.

For instance, if you had not taken your body into this room, nobody would know you were here; though even if you seem to be in the body, it is by no means sure that you are, because your mind might be wandering without your realizing it.

Then whatever is going on here would not be realized; it would be like a vague dream that floats in and out, and nothing has happened. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 1316.

Dr. : Jung:

Yes, the energy has passed out of the Indian again.

One could say that the generative power was exhausted at the end of the vision.

You should think of this series of visions as sort of spiritualistic seances.

The patient herself called her condition when seeing these images a trance.

Dhyana is the word applied to that state in the East, it has exactly thesame meaning.

You notice in spiritualistic seances that there is always a great deal of talk about a certain power created by thought, which is stored up and used by the spirits to manifest in moving physical bodies through space, as tables are lifted into the air, for instance.

That is all done by a strange power of an almost physical nature, which is supposed to be part of the medium as well as of other participants of the seance.

Very interesting experiments have been made in order to find out the nature of the power, but it is most mysterious, most elusive; though we have very definite facts, we are still far from understanding it.

We would say it was libido, a form of psychological energy.

Of course, psychological energy does not exist, it is a concept, but in the physical or phenomenal equivalent of energy in these conditions we find the same peculiarity,
namely, that this creative power is after a while exhausted, and then everything sinks back into the condition it was in before.

So only for a time can the Indian assume human form, say, or creative, autonomous activity, and then it dissolves.

At the end of the vision before, the bowing down to the ground might be just as well the disappearance into the ground, which means into the body; that generative power is again dissolved into the physiological process, as if it had never existed.

And then in the next dhyana or trance condition it comes up again in its animal form, as it was in the ram.

The ram is chthonic; it symbolizes the fertility of the earth.

The ram appears also in the Hindu system as the lord of the fire zone.

And according to old astrological tradition, it is associated with the planet Mars, which is supposed to be fiery and impulsive, manifesting suddenly.

That form was checked by the animus, but here the creative force is again appearing in the animal form.

This time it is a bird. What would that denote? ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Pages 118-119

From now on the visions will be rather more like real experiences.

She will be more active in them, she is part of the mystery play, and this happens in the moment when the Indian comes down the hill and drinks the water.

Before, he was high up on the rock, but now he descends into the deeper layers of the unconscious until he comes to the spring of life, one could say.

He leaves the divine-mystery sphere and comes down to the sources of the libido, which are deep in the body.

He becomes almost physical and in that way he wakes her up; there he catches her-that was the key he inserted in drinking the water.

That is an old symbol: drinking from the magic well has a transforming effect; it bestows all sorts of magic qualities upon one.

By drinking from a certain well women became pregnant.

And you remember the symbolism of the well where the woman of Samaria came to draw water, and where Jesus offered the living water.

In this case, by going down toward the earth, down into the body, and drinking the water, the Indian establishes a moment of communication between the sources of life and himself, and so he brings her in.

You see, that would again be something like bringing the egg to the mother, and also like the grain that comes from the earth. For she now enters the mystery play, and apparently she is veiled. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 147

Carl Jung: Every advance in culture is, psychologically, an extension of consciousness,

Every advance in culture is, psychologically, an extension of consciousness, a coming to consciousness that can take place only through discrimination.

Therefore an advance always begins with individuation, that is to say with the individual, conscious of his isolation, cutting a new path through hitherto untrodden territory.

To do this he must first return to the fundamental facts of his own being, irrespective of all authority and tradition, and allow himself to become conscious of his distinctiveness.

If he succeeds in giving collective validity to his widened consciousness, he creates a tension of opposites that provides the stimulation which culture needs for its further progress. 54: iii

It is just man's turning away from instinct—his opposing himself to instinct—that creates consciousness.

Instinct is nature and seeks to perpetuate nature, whereas consciousness can only seek culture or its denial.

Even when we turn back to nature, inspired by a Rousseauesque longing, we "cultivate" nature.

As long as we are still submerged in nature we are unconscious, and we live in the security of instinct which knows no problems.

Everything in us that still belongs to nature shrinks away from a problem, for its name is doubt, and wherever doubt holds sway there is uncertainty and the possibility of divergent ways.

And where several ways seem possible, there we have turned away from the certain guidance of instinct and are handed over to fear.

For consciousness is now called upon to do that which nature has always done for her children namely, to give a certain, unquestionable, and unequivocal decision.

And here we are beset by an all-too-human fear that consciousness—our Promethean conquest—may in the end not be able to serve us as well as nature. 94-750

When we must deal with problems, we instinctively resist trying the way that leads through obscurity and darkness.

We wish to hear only of unequivocal results, and completely forget that these results can only be brought about when we have ventured into and emerged again from the darkness.

But to penetrate the darkness we must summon all the powers of enlightenment that consciousness can offer. 94 : 752

If psychic life consisted only of self-evident matters of fact—which on a primitive level is still the case—we could content ourselves with a sturdy empiricism.

The psychic life of civilized man, however, is full of problems; we cannot even think of it except in terms of problems.

Our psychic processes are made up to a large extent of reflections, doubts, experiments, all of which are almost completely foreign to the unconscious, instinctive mind of primitive man.

It is the growth of consciousness which we must thank for the existence of problems; they are the Danaan gift of civilization, 94-750

Carl Jung: I do my own cooking and chop my own wood and raise my own potatoes.

To Father Victor White

Dear Father White, 13 April 1946

I was very pleased with your letter and I hasten to answer it at once.

It is a nice idea of yours that you want to come out to Switzerland between July and September.

The time that would suit me best would be between the 12th and 27th of August.

I should like you to consider yourself as my guest during your stay here.

I shall be in the country, on the upper part of the lake of Zurich, where I have a little country place.

If you are a friend of the simple life you will have all the comfort you need.

If your tastes should be too fastidious you would find it a bit rough.

To give you an idea: I do my own cooking and chop my own wood and raise my own potatoes.

But you have a decent bed and a roof over your head and we shall have plenty of time to discuss anything under the sun.

As to clerical garments, you need no disguise whatever, since we shall be in a Catholic country, not very far from the famous monastery of Einsiedeln.

But I warn you to bring something old and disreputable with you so that you spare your good clothes, and a pair of light shoes for occasional sailing on the lake.

In alchemy you find many references to the homo quadratus, which is always an allusion to mercurius quadratus, i.e., the hermai.

The quadratura is a symbol for totality.

Yours sincerely,

C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Pages 419-420

Carl Jung across the web:

Blog: http: http://carljungdepthpsychology.blogspot.com/

Google+: https://plus.google.com/102529939687199578205/posts

Facebook: Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/56536297291/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/grp/home?gid=4861719&sort=recent&trk=my_groups-tile-flipgrp

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Carl-Jung-326016020781946/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/purrington104/

Red Book: https://www.facebook.com/groups/792124710867966/

Scoop.It: http://www.scoop.it/u/maxwell-purrington

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaxwellPurringt

WordPress: https://carljungdepthpsychology.wordpress.com/

Great Sites to visit:

1. Jenna Lilla's Path of the Soul http://jennalilla.org/

2. Steve Jung-Hearted Parker's Jung Currents http://jungcurrents.com/


3. Frith Luton's Jungian Dream Analysis and Psychotherapy: http://frithluton.com/articles/

Carl Jung: The only way of delimiting the Self is by experiment.

Next he spoke of fear.

He said, "Be afraid of the world, for it is big and strong; and fear the demons within, for they are many and brutal; but do not fear yourself, for that is your Self."

I said I feared to open the door for fear the demons would come out and destroy.

He said, "If you lock them up they will as surely destroy.

The only way of delimiting the Self is by experiment.

Go as far as your desire goes, and you will presently find that you have gone as far as your own laws allow: If you feel afraid, be brave enough to run away.

Find a hole to hide in, for this is the action of a brave man and by so doing you are exercising courage.

Presently the swing of cowardice will be over, and courage will take its place."

I said, "But how hopelessly unstable and changeable you will appear!"

He replied, "Then be unstable.

A new stability will reassert itself. Does one live for other people or for oneself?

Here is the place where one must learn true unselfishness."

The law was made by man.

We made it.

It is therefore below us, and we can law above it.

As St. Paul said, "I am redeemed and am freed from the law."

He realized that, as man, he had made it. So also a contract cannot bind us, for we who made it can break it.

Thus, vice too, if entered into sincerely as a means of finding and expressing the Self, is not vice, for the fearless honesty cuts that out.

But when we are bound by an artificial barrier, or laws and moralities that have entered into us, then we are prevented from finding, or even from seeing, that there is a real barrier of the Self outside this artificial barrier.

We fear that if we break through this artificial barrier we shall find ourselves in limitless space.

But within each of us is the self-regulating Self. ~Esther Harding, Conversations with Jung, Pages 7-9

Carl Jung: By accepting the darkness...

By accepting the darkness, the patient has not, to be sure, changed it into light, but she has kindled a light that illuminates the darkness within.

By day no light is needed, and if you don't know it is night you won't light one, nor will any light be lit for you unless you have suffered the horror of darkness.

This is not an edifying text but a mere statement of the psychological facts.

The transition from Picture 7 to Picture 8 gives one a working idea of what I mean by "accepting the dark principle."

It has sometimes been objected that nobody can form a clear conception of what this means, which is regrettable, because it is an ethical problem of the first order. Here, then, is a practical example of this "acceptance," and I must leave it to the philosophers to puzzle out the ethical aspects of the process. ~Carl Jung, CW 9i, Para 595.

Carl Jung and Aniela Jaffe

Carl Jung: The psyche creates reality every day.

The psyche creates reality every day.

The only expression I can use for this activity is fantasy.

Fantasy is just as much feeling as thinking, as much intuition as sensation.

There is no psychic function that, through fantasy, is not inextricably bound up with the other psychic functions.

Sometimes it appears in primordial form, sometimes it is the ultimate and boldest product of all our faculties combined.

Fantasy, therefore, seems to me the clearest expression of the specific activity of the psyche.

It is, pre-eminently, the creative activity from which the answers to all answerable questions come; it is the mother of all possibilities, where, like all psychological opposites, the inner and outer worlds are joined together in living union. ~Carl Jung, CW 6, Para 78

Carl Jung: ...the psyche is the science of the future.

It is my conviction that the investigation of the psyche is the science of the future.

Psychology is the youngest of the sciences and is only at the beginning of its development.

It is, however, the science we need most.

Indeed, it is becoming ever more obvious that it is not famine, not earthquakes, not microbes, not cancer but man himself who is man's greatest danger to man, for the simple reason that
there is no adequate protection against psychic epidemics, which are infinitely more devastating than the worst of natural catastrophes.

The supreme danger which threatens individuals as well as whole nations is a psychic danger. ~Carl Jung, CW 15, Para 339

Carl Jung: The relation to the snake is a chthonic mystery.

[Carl Jung on the “Black Snake.”]

Dr. Jung:

Last time we were talking about the black snake.

Today we are going to look into its further fate.

After our patient had swallowed the snake, she emerged from the cave, which means that she came up from the darkness of the unconscious where that happened.

The relation to the snake is a chthonic mystery.

I told you a similar rite was celebrated at Eleusis where the initiate had to kiss the snake, and in the antique mysteries of Sabazios the snake was passed through the garment at the neck and pulled out below, symbolizing the same procedure-swallowing the snake, the descent of the snake through the body.

Now we are not sure what should happen to that snake, whether it should remain in the body, or whether it should be digested, pass through the body and come out again.

It would then be a sort of rebirth mystery such as is celebrated in India to cure a sick man: a cow is made of leather, and the man is pushed into the mouth of the cow and pulled through the belly and out again, so he is reborn.

It is like that sort of rebirth clinic which still exists in Cornwall: there are two menhirs standing about as far apart as the length of this room, and in between is a huge slab of rock with a manhole in it, big enough for me to just squeeze myself through.

And it still happens that in the night of the new moon, farmers draw their sick babies through the hole in order to cure them.

That is a rite of rebirth which is used as a cure, as sick people were given new names for that purpose.

And there was a case in north Germany where two trees had grown together in such a way that a Yoni-shaped space was in between them, through which a sick person was pulled.

Or he was pulled through a hole made in the wall at the head of his bed.

And to cure cattle disease, they drove the cattle between two oak poles that were on fire.

So the human individual might in this case be called the birthplace of the snake.

That black snake is the earth factor in man, and we might assume that it is seeking rebirth, or perhaps it penetrates the body as a sort of phallic demon in order to impregnate it, or to transform it.

There are several possibilities-we do not know how the thing will develop.

We cannot find out from Zarathustra because the shepherd did not digest the serpent.

But now we shall see what happened to the serpent in this vision.

She says: "I emerged from the cave, the goat and the white snake accompanying me. We came upon a brilliant disk of gold lying on the ground."

You remember we said that the disk or the pool of gold was presumably below the roots of the tree, sowe could assume that we are here somewhere near the tree.

You also remember that descent from the image of the deity down into the golden pool in the ground symbolizing the sun above.

This is the same golden disk and she says: "The black snake which I had swallowed leapt from my throat and fell upon the golden disk."

The snake comes out all by itself. She does not say that she intentionally vomited the serpent; it simply leapt out ofher and fell upon the golden disk
where, she says: "Instantly it was transformed into a handful ofashes."

Now what can we conclude from that concerning the nature of the golden disk?

~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 290

Carl Jung: ...the dead and buried Self that appears in the pyramid,...

Dr. Jung:

We have further contributions to the diamond symbolism today.

We said last time that the diamond was a carbon crystal, and Dr. Escher now says that it crystallizes in the cubic system, one of the simple forms being a double pyramid, the same above and below.

So the pyramid is really an analogy to the diamond, we were not far from the truth when we drew that parallel.

Then the word diamond-diamant in German and French-derives from the Greek adamas, which means the untamable or the invincible one, and that fits in beautifully with the symbolic meaning of the diamond.

Also it has peculiar magic qualities.

You know magic qualities have always been attributed to precious stones; the amethyst is a protection against drunkenness, for instance, and the diamond has the power of averting insanity and avoiding poison.

In the Middle Ages it was known as the pietra della reconciliazione, the stone of reconciliation,the peacemaker between husband and wife, a very good idea, and then after sixty years they celebrate the diamond wedding. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 1351

Now we will go on with our text.

We were speaking last time of the sacrificed animus whose remains were on three sides of the pyramid.

There was the split face of a man, and the man lying face downward on the ground, and a knife from which blood was dripping.

Those are the three symptoms of a slaughter which has taken place, obviously the slaughter of the animus that was left behind.

And the Self that was left behind turned into matter, into a pyramid.

Mrs. Baumann: Does it mean then that the animus and the Self are buried together in the pyramid?

Dr. Jung:

Yes. It is quite certain that it is the dead and buried Self that appears in the pyramid, as the dead pharaoh appears in the form of the pyramid.

That is the last one sees of him because his mummy is walled up inside; the old Egyptians gave a human shape to the sarcophagus itself, the head and face and arms indicating as nearly as possible the shape of the king, and then they built that outward sign over him.

Evidently the animus does not enter the pyramid-shrine altogether, because those remains of him are still outside, but there is apparently very little life left in them, so we may assume that his life also is buried within the pyramid.

When the kind of relation to the Self which the patient has had



Those remains of the animus in the vision are still visible, then, because you cannot get rid of the animus, which means that you cannot get rid of your own opposite, the other voice; just as you can never get rid of mankind, or of the object, it is always there, whatever it is.

So our patient has to do something about it and she says:

I seized the knife and where the knife had been, appeared a human hand with blood dripping from the finger.

With the knife I cut off the hand.

Evidently the hand comes out of the pyramid-bad symbolism you see.

The living being to which that hand belonged is the animus.

Cutting off the hand is a great mutilation, so she mutilates whatever life is left in the form of the animus.

Now she says:

Then I struck the pyramid with the knife. It crumbled away and I saw, standing where it had been, a man.

There he comes!

The pyramid is the visible sign of the Self that once has been, or the king who once has lived, and she now destroys the pyramid.

It is obviously a magic act of destruction, and she does it with the knife.

That means what?

Miss Hannah: With the logos.

Dr. Jung: Logos is too beautiful, too ecclesiastical. I should say it was the intellect, the discriminating mind, an acute mind, sharp like a knife; she cuts in with her mind, and so she destroys the pyramid.

That is what we do; we have destroyed those things with our minds so they now mean nothing to us except historical remains.

And we have developed an almost morbid mania for preserving remains, as a compensation for their lack of meaning; we do not understand them, and instead we have a sort
of historic sentimentality and preserve them indiscriminately.

Certain archaeological collections are really ridiculous, they preserve old poles and God knows what.

There is a collection in Switzerland which contains the most absurd things; they did not know what they were, but I knew, having a good power of fantasy and having had the subject suggested by one of my old teachers.

You see, those things were connected with a serious question, as I learned when I went to Africa.

Suppose you come to the desert and nothing grows there but cactus and you have a human need, what can you do?

That was a great question in antiquity; they had no paper you see.

An old professor of Latin used always to put that question to us boys: what do you think they did about it in antiquity?

Did they use newspaper?

But there was no paper, only papyrus, and that was an exceedingly expensive substance which had to be fetched from Egypt and paid for very heavily.

Linen?

That was also expensive.

Leaves?

But in a town or in the desert there were no leaves.

What did they do then?

So he said they always carried a little bag filled with gravel; ordinary people had just ordinary gravel and the rich people had marble.

Of course that was his joke, but they did have little sticks for that purpose.

There is a place in Zurich where there were Roman barracks, half a legion was stationed there, and in the outlets for the drainage, they found any number of those little sticks and didn't know what they were.

And those things were preserved, along with old drainage pipes and old bottles and God knows what nonsense, in a museum two thousand years afterwards just because they were old. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Pages 1362-1363

Dr. Jung:

Yes, he takes root, he becomes one with the earth, as it were.

So he is in danger of becoming nothing but an earthbound being.

That comes from the fact that the patient is occupied all the time with the descent into the world, and the man she meets there is the same, her opposite is also growing into the earth and becoming formless.

He said:

"You have liberated me from the pyramid. Can you now give me my limbs? Can you free them and shape them?" I answered: "Wait." I went away from him and sat alone wondering how I could free the man. At length I arose and said to him: "I must sever you from the earth."

He cried out: "If you cut me off I will bleed to death."

You see, the idea here is that something ought to be done about it.

That man is about to grow into the earth, in which case he would be completely lamed, he would become a tree perhaps, unable to move from the spot. And she seems to feel a certain responsibility about it, that it should be prevented.

What is the danger? ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 1364

Carl Jung on Dreams

Carl Jung on Death

Carl Jung and The Red Book

Carl Jung Images by Dr. Stephen Parker

Carl Jung on the "Old Alchemists."

The old alchemists were nearer to the central truth of the psyche than Faust when they strove to deliver the fiery spirit from the chemical elements, and treated the mystery as though it lay in the dark and silent womb of nature.

It was still outside them.

The upward thrust of evolving consciousness was bound sooner or later to put an end to the projection, and to restore to the psyche what had been psychic from the beginning.

Yet, ever since the Age of Enlightenment and in the era of scientific rationalism, what indeed was the psyche: It had become synonymous with consciousness.

The psyche was "what I know."

There was no psyche outside the ego.

Inevitably, then, the ego identified with the contents accruing from the withdrawal of projection.

Gone were the days when the psyche was still for the most part "outside the body" and imagined "those greater things" which the body could not grasp.

The contents that were formerly projected were now bound to appear as personal possessions, as chimerical phantasms of the ego-consciousness.

The fire chilled to air, and the air became the great wind of Zarathustra and caused an inflation of consciousness which, it seems, can be damped down only by the most terrible catastrophe to civilization, another deluge let loose by the gods upon inhospitable humanity. ~Carl Jung, CW 12, Para 562

Carl Jung: It is much more needful to teach people the art of seeing.

We do not devalue statements that originally were intended to be metaphysical when we demonstrate their psychic nature; on the contrary, we confirm their factual
character.

But, by treating them as psychic phenomena, we remove them from the inaccessible realm of metaphysics, about which nothing verifiable can be said, and this disposes of the impossible question as to whether they are "true" or not.

We take our stand simply and solely on the facts, recognizing that the archetypal structure of the unconscious will produce, over and over again and irrespective of tradition, those figures which reappear in the history of all epochs and all peoples, and will endow them with the same significance and numinosity that have been theirs from the beginning. ~Carl Jung, CW 14, Para 558

It would be blasphemy to assert that God can manifest himself everywhere save only in the human soul.

Indeed the very intimacy of the relationship between God and the soul precludes from the start any devaluation of the latter.

It would be going perhaps too far to speak of an affinity; but at all events the soul must contain in itself the faculty of relation to God, i.e., a correspondence, otherwise a connection
could never come about. ~Carl Jung, CW 12, Para 1

1 did not attribute a religious function to the soul, I merely produced the facts which prove that the soul is natitraliter religiosa, i.e., possesses a religious function.

I did not invent or insinuate this function, it produces itself of its own accord without being prompted thereto by any opinions or suggestions of mine.

With a truly tragic delusion theologians fail to see that it is not a matter of proving the existence of the light, but of blind people who do not know that their eyes could see.

It is high time we realized that it is pointless to praise the light and preach it if nobody can see it.

It is much more needful to teach people the art of seeing.

For it is obvious that far too many people are incapable of establishing a connection between the sacred figures and their own psyche: they cannot see to what extent the equivalent images are lying dormant in their own unconscious.

In order to facilitate this inner vision we must first clear the way for the faculty of seeing.

How this is to be done without psychology, that is, without making contact with the psyche, is, frankly, beyond my comprehension. ~Carl Jung, CW 12, Para 14

Carl Jung: The (Psyche) contains many riddles

The nature of the psyche reaches into obscurities far beyond the scope of our understanding.

It contains as many riddles as the universe with its galactic systems, before whose majestic configurations only a mind lacking in imagination can fail to admit its own insufficiency.

This extreme uncertainty of human comprehension makes the intellectualistic hubbub not only ridiculous, but also deplorably dull. ~Carl Jung, CW 8, Para 815

"Free will," he [Jung] said, "is doing gladly and freely that which one must do."

Mary S. Howells

When a great man dies, myths and legends begin to gather around him which are fascinating but seem to me undesirable, because the actual truth and the mystery of simplicity carry so much more meaning.

Therefore, I am choosing to write, not of his wisdom and priceless humor, but of the simplest things which to me are still poignant experiences.

After weeks of trying to shape life to my own idea of what I thought was reasonable and right, I sorrowfully acquiesced to fate, i.e., I renounced my ego drive. I was completely spent by strain and sadness.

As I was leaving his study at the end of a conference he said, "Remember, there is only one sorrow and one joy that goes round the world."

These words have remained with me and have helped me to equalize what the Zen Buddhists call the buffetings of pleasure and pain.

The second incident occurred again as I was taking leave.

Following through on the thought of the hour, I said: "Do you then believe in free will?"

"Certainly I do," he replied.

I, who was trained in obligation and duty, was dismayed and looked up for an explanation.

"Free will," he said, "is doing gladly and freely that which one must do."

One morning in 1929 as I waited for Dr. Jung to come up to his study, I noticed with deep concern that his usual light step was ponderous and slow.

I asked him if he were ill or very tired, and he said, "No .... Wilhelm has just died."

Thinking that he might wish to be alone for the hour, I offered to leave.

"Oh, no," he answered, "life goes right on."

This was typical, for to him, there never seemed to be any beginning or any end-birth and death formed one continuous cycle.

My visits with Dr. Jung, in 1949 and 1955, were at Kusnacht, Zurich, in his wonderfully warm study, or in the lovely living room by the fire, or in the blossoming garden sloping down to the lake, or at Ascona, along the shores of the lake near his hotel.

My impression throughout all my meetings with Jung was of a man who met one as an equal.

To me, there is no greater tribute than to say that each time I experienced with him an "I-Thou" relationship.

Dr. Jung always respected the other person, and responded with greatness and with humility.

The directness of the meeting of the eyes and the smile around the mouth conveyed this dramatically.

From the first moment I met him-when he laughingly said, "Oh, I hear dark rumors about you and your work in the New Testament!"-until the last time I saw him-when he said, "Go on talking about the religious aspects of my work.

They are the most important parts"-! was involved in probing with him the whole religious process of individuation.

From these talks, and the very great deal that was said, two personal impressions stand out in my memory.

One is that this man did in fact accept the shadow, and that this acceptance brought problems and tensions but also aliveness, reality, integrity, and depth of being.

This inclusiveness, in the offering of one's life to God, made him in what he was an effective exemplar of his belief that "incarnation" is not an idea but an achievement.

The second feeling that remains central out of my talks with him has to do with the controversy about where Dr. Jung stood personally as regards the relationship between the Self and the image of God, and as regards what he felt to be behind the image.

Regardless of what he tried to do in remaining scientific in his writing, when he talked with me face to face he left no doubt in my mind that when he spoke of God he was speaking of more than the archetype of God.

This is sharply emphasized in a statement he made after he had been talking most movingly about the use and need of prayer.

"Why do I have to talk about God?

Because He is everywhere! I am only the spoon in his kitchen."

And what great things have been stirred by this spoon.

For the world, and for us personally.

We must take hold more firmly of our own spoons now that his is put away.

That we know much of how to do this, is our great debt to Dr. Jung. ~Mary S. Howells, J.E.T., Pages 119-121

Carl Jung’s near-death experience

In a hospital in Switzerland in 1944, the world-renowned psychiatrist Carl G. Jung, had a heart attack and then a near-death experience. His vivid encounter with the light, plus the intensely meaningful insights led Jung to conclude that his experience came from something real and eternal. Jung’s experience is unique in that he saw the Earth from a vantage point of about a thousand miles above it.

His incredibly accurate view of the Earth from outer space was described about two decades before astronauts in space first described it. Subsequently, as he reflected on life after death, Jung recalled the meditating Hindu from his near-death experience and read it as a parable of the archetypal Higher Self, the God-image within. Carl Jung, who founded analytical psychology, centered on the archetypes of the collective unconscious. The following is an excerpt from his autobiography entitled Memories, Dreams, Reflections describing his near-death experience.

It seemed to me that I was high up in space. Far below I saw the globe of the Earth, bathed in a gloriously blue light. I saw the deep blue sea and the continents. Far below my feet lay Ceylon, and in the distance ahead of me the subcontinent of India. My field of vision did not include the whole Earth, but its global shape was plainly distinguishable and its outlines shone with a silvery gleam through that wonderful blue light.

In many places the globe seemed colored, or spotted dark green like oxidized silver. Far away to the left lay a broad expanse – the reddish-yellow desert of Arabia; it was as though the silver of the Earth had there assumed a reddish-gold hue. Then came the Red Sea, and far, far back – as if in the upper left of a map – I could just make out a bit of the Mediterranean. My gaze was directed chiefly toward that. Everything else appeared indistinct. I could also see the snow-covered Himalayas, but in that direction it was foggy or cloudy. I did not look to the right at all. I knew that I was on the point of departing from the Earth.

Later I discovered how high in space one would have to be to have so extensive a view – approximately a thousand miles! The sight of the Earth from this height was the most glorious thing I had ever seen.

After contemplating it for a while, I turned around. I had been standing with my back to the Indian Ocean, as it were, and my face to the north. Then it seemed to me that I made a turn to the south. Something new entered my field of vision. A short distance away I saw in space a tremendous dark block of stone, like a meteorite. It was about the size of my house, or even bigger. It was floating in space, and I myself was floating in space.

I had seen similar stones on the coast of the Gulf of Bengal. They were blocks of tawny granite, and some of them had been hollowed out into temples. My stone was one such gigantic dark block. An entrance led into a small antechamber. To the right of the entrance, a black Hindu sat silently in lotus posture upon a stone bench. He wore a white gown, and I knew that he expected me.

Two steps led up to this antechamber, and inside, on the left, was the gate to the temple. Innumerable tiny niches, each with a saucer-like concavity filled with coconut oil and small burning wicks, surrounded the door with a wreath of bright flames. I had once actually seen this when I visited the Temple of the Holy Tooth at Kandy in Ceylon; the gate had been framed by several rows of burning oil lamps of this sort.

As I approached the steps leading up to the entrance into the rock, a strange thing happened: I had the feeling that everything was being sloughed away; everything I aimed at or wished for or thought, the whole phantasmagoria of earthly existence, fell away or was stripped from me – an extremely painful process. Nevertheless something remained; it was as if I now carried along with me everything I had ever experienced or done, everything that had happened around me. I might also say: it was with me, and I was it. I consisted of all that, so to speak. I consisted of my own history and I felt with great certainty: this is what I am. I am this bundle of what has been and what has been accomplished.

This experience gave me a feeling of extreme poverty, but at the same time of great fullness. There was no longer anything I wanted or desired. I existed in an objective form; I was what I had been and lived. At first the sense of annihilation predominated, of having been stripped or pillaged; but suddenly that became of no consequence.

Everything seemed to be past; what remained was a “fait accompli”, without any reference back to what had been. There was no longer any regret that something had dropped away or been taken away. On the contrary: I had everything that I was, and that was everything.

Something else engaged my attention: as I approached the temple I had the certainty that I was about to enter an illuminated room and would meet there all those people to whom I belong in reality. There I would at last understand – this too was a certainty – what historical nexus I or my life fitted into. I would know what had been before me, why I had come into being, and where my life was flowing. My life as I lived it had often seemed to me like a story that has no beginning and end. I had the feeling that I was a historical fragment, an excerpt for which the preceding and succeeding text was missing.

My life seemed to have been snipped out of a long chain of events, and many questions had remained unanswered. Why had it taken this course? Why had I brought these particular assumptions with me? What had I made of them? What will follow? I felt sure that I would receive an answer to all the questions as soon as I entered the rock temple. There I would meet the people who knew the answer to my question about what had been before and what would come after.

While I was thinking over these matters, something happened that caught my attention. From below, from the direction of Europe, an image floated up. It was my doctor, or rather, his likeness – framed by a golden chain or a golden laurel wreath. I knew at once: ’Aha, this is my doctor, of course, the one who has been treating me. But now he is coming in his primal form. In life he was an avatar of the temporal embodiment of the primal form, which has existed from the beginning. Now he is appearing in that primal form.’

Presumably I too was in my primal form, though this was something I did not observe but simply took for granted. As he stood before me, a mute exchange of thought took place between us. The doctor had been delegated by the Earth to deliver a message to me, to tell me that there was a protest against my going away. I had no right to leave the Earth and must return. The moment I heard that, the vision ceased.

I was profoundly disappointed, for now it all seemed to have been for nothing. The painful process of defoliation had been in vain, and I was not to be allowed to enter the temple, to join the people in whose company I belonged.

In reality, a good three weeks were still to pass before I could truly make up my mind to live again. I could not eat because all food repelled me. The view of city and mountains from my sickbed seemed to me like a painted curtain with black holes in it, or a tattered sheet of newspaper full of photographs that meant nothing. Disappointed, I thought, “Now I must return to the “box system” again.”

For it seemed to me as if behind the horizon of the cosmos a three-dimensional world had been artificially built up, in which each person sat by himself in a little box. And now I should have to convince myself all over again that this was important! Life and the whole world struck me as a prison, and it bothered me beyond measure that I should again be finding all that quite in order. I had been so glad to shed it all, and now it had come about that I - along with everyone else – would again be hung up in a box by a thread.

I felt violent resistance to my doctor because he had brought me back to life. At the same time, I was worried about him. “His life is in danger, for heaven’s sake! He has appeared to me in his primal form! When anybody attains this form it means he is going to die, for already he belongs to the “greater company.” Suddenly the terrifying thought came to me that the doctor would have to die in my stead. I tried my best to talk to him about it, but he did not understand me. Then I became angry with him.

In actual fact I was his last patient. On April 4, 1944 – I still remember the exact date I was allowed to sit up on the edge of my bed for the first time since the beginning of my illness, and on this same day the doctor took to his bed and did not leave it again. I heard that he was having intermittent attacks of fever. Soon afterward he died of septicernia. He was a good doctor; there was something of the genius about him. Otherwise he would not have appeared to me as an avatar of the temporal embodiment of the primal form. ~Carl Jung, Memories Dreams and Reflections