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Active imagination, Analytical Psychology, Anima and Animus, Carl Jung, differentiation, individuation, Jung, Liber Novus, Pleroma, psychological function, Septem Sermones ad Mortuos, The First Sermon to the Dead, The Red Book, Undiscovered Self

Where did Jung learn about dealing with the darkness within so as not to project this outward… and how did he carry out this courageous work?

I’ll begin at the end…

What is The Red Book?

The Red Book — Liber Novus
The Red Book is an account of Carl Jung’s journey in the abstract of his unconscious… handwritten by Carl Gustav Jung, this is the pinnacle for all of his works… the final proof really of Jung’s contributions to understanding the human psyche. The marketed book includes a reproduction of his handwritten manuscript (Swiss) as well as a translation by Sonu Shamdasani and including Jung’s abstract illustrations.

For sixteen years, Jung worked on the book, experiencing the shadow (darkness and light) of his unconscious mind and developing lasting theories of archetypes and complexes, the collective unconscious, and of individuation. The original work was locked away… his heirs denied scholars access to the book — for nearly 100 years, we, the public could not learn of Jung’s experiences… experiences that clearly brought about in Jung the mind-shift of his awakening psychology… a psychology of real people undergoing awakening; an evolution of thinking; a process of individuation.

It is a huge book (18 x 12.3 x 2.5 inches), a mystical book; it includes Jung’s fabulous color illustrations… handwritten, its like a medieval manuscript.

The Red Book, Publication Date: October 19, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0393065677 | ISBN-13: 978-0393065671

The book is Jung’s personal journal. If you’ve not read any of C. G. Jung’s work, this is not where to begin at exploring his works on discovering the unconscious. There is a lot of material in this book that goes unexplained; most of understanding, in fact, rests on Jung’s volumes of works.

His work, “Man and His Symbols” is inexpensive and a good place to begin (see also, video; length: 2:31:19). Regarding, approaching the unconscious… Jung claims that he had a dream in which he recognized the need to explain his theories to the lay public. Man and His Symbols is a concise summary of Jung’s works on the unconscious.

The Red Book is a written account with paintings of Jung’s ongoing, many years of fantasy. Inspired in his work with severely mentally ill patients, by his research, and by his need for spiritual growth and investigation, Jung began in spiritual growth as a Christian. As far as I know, he never claimed to separate from Christianity. However, he was Gnostic. The video at the end of this post is interesting regarding his beliefs. I note below an excerpt from another work that fascinated Jung, his writing of “The Seven Sermons to the Dead” in which he explores the totality of divine power. So, this is not a typical book review.

My exploration here is for my own purposes to explore Jung’s works and my own spiritual path; it is good for me. I practice nondual Christian training shaped not solely by organized Christian religions. I am not Jungian either; nor Gnostic. Being Christian, I think that Jung’s work is outstanding in as far as he goes. Jung stops at the critical place in spiritual development though; he stops short of awakening in the Holy Spirit while concentrating on continuance to deal instead by escaping the ego from the experience of a humanized spiritual experience (summarized here). Certainly, his work is outstanding and warrants extensive examination.

I know, I’ve been a Jungian student for many years. Personally, I would like to have met him and gain, by his experience, first hand.

Christian religions may fail to adequately describe the ego problem. The ego is merely identity, an illusion really that is non-existent. Ego projections separate us from divinity and may disturb us and even helplessly enslave the higher-self in space-time. Ego is constantly contrasting others and we find ourselves led by its self-centered dominance into controlling behaviors, confrontations, anger or self-pity, repression, fear, bitterness, resentments, and self-doubt. Following along in a life that is daily disturbed by ego, experiencing awareness of the higher-self emerges slowly, if at all, from what we don’t want. I think that there isn’t any escaping ego. We must gain faith in divinity greater than our own and seek connections to God’s will by seeking Holy Spirit’s steady guidance.

Jesus consulted with Holy Spirit from a man’s life in form as Jesus grew to be the human vessel of God the Son. Christ makes appearances then from the last days or weeks or possibly months until Resurrection. Our need for salvation was fulfilled in the Resurrection by defeat of Jesus for the beliefs in fears. He defeats even our greatest beliefs in meeting with Satan for forty days. Jesus completely surrendered to Christ consciousness and thus is the way of the light as Christians believe. Clearly God’s will is all about being love and our self-discovery ought be restrained when our minds wander from this. Certainly love is not a lesson from the ego. Unconditional love is incomprehensible to ego.

Jung’s influence is growing in religious circles since he related experiences in a religious manner. His work is of the study of the psyche; and psyche in Greek means “soul.” However, Jung was an occultist and his major theories stem from his experience with spirit guides, in particular, Philemon. Jung was on to something important indeed with his exploration of the psyche. Human’s operate mostly by self-centered ego and while spiritual growth is not impossible, ego identity dissociation from spirit is very difficult to overcome. Personally, I greatly value Jung’s work but I draw the line at discovery of my higher-self by occult methods. In my opinion Christian relationship with Holy Spirit is the way to go.

In 1957, Jung gave an interview to Aniela Jaffé about the Red Book and his process; saying:

The years… when I pursued the inner images, were the most important time of my life. Everything else is to be derived from this. It began at that time, and the later details hardly matter anymore. My entire life consisted in elaborating what had burst forth from the unconscious and flooded me like an enigmatic stream and threatened to break me. That was the stuff and material for more than only one life. Everything later was merely the outer classification, scientific elaboration, and the integration into life. But the numinous beginning, which contained everything, was then.

Program Description Professor Sonu Shamdasani introduces the creation and significance of Carl Jung’s Red Book. On view to the public for the first time, the book was the center piece of the exhibition The Red Book of C. G. Jung: Creation of a New Cosmology at The Rubin Museum of Art from October 7, 2009 – February 15, 2010.

SORRY: the source volume is low. This was the best video I could find for what I wanted to quickly demonstrate from Jung’s work.

The Undiscovered Self — Jung — Awakening If you are making a study of Jung’s works, begin instead of with this book with an overview of Jung’s Analytical Psychology, with his theory of archetypes, with self-reflection and with understanding of your own personality… the who are you approach works, in my opinion. Jung’s greatest contribution really is to the questions we all ask of ourselves… who am I? What are my motivations, communication style, and relationships preferences about? You are a lot more effective when you understand yourself as well as people that you must motivate or manage or develop and help or live with. Unless you are planning to spend years at studying Jung, the real importance of his work for you will be that he provides experiences that stimulate asking questions to connect with a higher-self. Use, for example, a personality sorter and begin to know who you are and how prefer to be… if continuing with Jung, read Jung’s earlier published works… it may take 10 or 20 years to evolve a comprehensive knowledge of his work… I’ve been at it for that much or more. Jung’s works came about over many years — his lifetime really.

There are many important aspects of personality. The personality is our way of communicating. As a beginning, you’d discover which psychic energy attitude type is your preference. Orientated by, and related to the object, what is your preference? Are you more Introverted or Extraverted?

An introvert attitude is an abstracting one, motivated from within. That is, energy is internally directed toward the inner self. The primary problem presented to the introvert attitude is how to be withdrawn from the object. The extrovert maintains a positive attitude energy being directed outward toward the outside world.

Strongly orientated extroverts or introverts experience things in quite different ways and this may sometime cause conflict or misunderstandings with others. Jung said that extraversion and introversion are not mutually exclusive and will be self-balancing or compensating through the conscious and unconscious. A strongly extraverted outward consciousness will possess a compensatory strong inward unconscious introvert; and vice-versa. Jung linked this compensatory effect for example to repression of natural tendencies and resulting unhappiness or illness.

Explore the duality of your psyche… set out knowing that you must face your unconscious and even your deepest fears. In the end, an awakening must confront the skeletons in your closet. Beginning with God… forge a path to knowing that the human psyche is “by nature religious.” If you are not open to and interested in spiritual development, Jung is most probably not for you. If you immature in spirit, perhaps Jung is also not for you. If you want to know about reality, about living fully a conscious life, then delve into Jung’s works after finding some spiritual maturity… and come finally about it then to study “The Red Book.” You’ll probably discover his images are interesting too.

Program Description In this seminar Murray Stein and Paul Brutsche, International School of Analytical Psychology, discuss some of the different images in Carl Jung’s Red Book.

The Red Book

Here is a brief description of the fantastic Jung that awaits you:

I categorize the work as

CONFRONTATION WITH THE UNCONSCIOUS… THE FINAL HUMAN FRONTIER

like a future sci-fi may capture, a Jung companion work;

a summary of the revelation of Carl Jung…

Septem Sermones ad Mortuos . The Seven Sermons to the Dead transcribed by Carl Gustav Jung, 1916 written by Basilides

Beginning by Pleroma (the totality of divine power) everywhere is completely and without bounds nor end. There is no-thing and yet this is source of all. We, as Creatura, not in the pleroma, but in self, have from source, the smallest point that is everything and yet nothing. This is knowledge. By our Christian view, knowledge is lost or befuddled by choices (good and evil) and we miss the mark (source) by this sin. The separation by sin causes us to forget source and original knowledge; forever concocting choices as though each moment is separate from timeless all.

From Jung’s work, we understand the Pleroma as a source which is endless and eternal that has no qualities because it has all qualities. Even in the smallest subatomic particle known to science, the Pleroma is present without any bounds, eternally and completely. Yet, the smallest to greatest material of the universe have no place in the Pleroma.

Here is an introduction (source: The First Sermon to the Dead) “I begin with nothingness. Nothingness is the same as fullness. In infinity full is no better than empty. Nothingness is both empty and full. As well might ye say anything else of nothingness, as for instance, white is it, or black, or again, it is not, or it is. A thing that is infinite and eternal hath no qualities, since it hath all qualities. This nothingness or fullness we name the Pleroma. Therein both thinking and being cease, since the eternal and infinite possess no qualities. In it no being is, for he then would be distinct from the pleroma, and would possess qualities which would distinguish him as something distinct from the pleroma. In the pleroma there is nothing and everything. It is quite fruitless to think about the pleroma, for this would mean self-dissolution.”

Choices

TWO STATES

…1. Nothing exists …2. Everything exists

It is logically impossible for the idea, God, to not exist, therefore, everything exists is “more” correct, as it may seem. We’d take into consideration potentials as well. Therefore, there is more to be than already is. This will always be the case, I’d say. So, neither state is of itself true, in my opinion. The idea, God, is ever expanding and yet, unchanging. Wait… then, can there be another course of thinking that is more accurate?

THREE STATES

…1. Nothing exists …2. Everything exists …3. Multiplicity is

While the idea, God, is an idea that is represented as a singular being (although not a being in the sense of what we’d normally propose as being), we may perceive God as three or more differentiated beings (the aspects of one). Christianity is what I know best… so, I’ll say from that experience that the idea, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is three ideas of the one God. We typically declare in Christian views that they are three beings in unity, as one God.

Anima and Animus In reality, every female and every male is a psychological amalgamation of feminine and masculine characteristics (see: contrasexual). Anima (feminine) plus Animus (masculine) contrasexuality derives from the ultimate triune… Eros (masculine–independent archetype: god of love) and Logos (feminine dependant archetype: the principle governing the cosmos) that forms a soul-image. In a simple statement, two bring about a third and the amalgamation of the two in each. It is simple, yet elegant too. Look at love verse hate, and then wonder, what is the third aspect of that duality (autonomy vs. unity)? Is it choices? Choices come about in the differentiated world of men and women. If analyzed to their core, each choice is a factor of two opposing views (or two plus two more, and perhaps another pair and so on).

Closing

We experience yin verse yang (love vs. fear, etc.) and we therefore come to a decision based on choices… morality and ethics, desires, or needs… needs being the most important factor; yet the lowest functioning of reasons for decisions. “After the first “fall,” the divine consciousness descended to the level of the divided consciousness; now after another “fall” descending even further, divine consciousness comes into the depths of the unconscious; it has been “forgotten.” So, we may have a privilege to discover the potential realms of existence and face the great challenge of the “ascension of consciousness” through awakening to love. We discover that fear is the condition that separates us from the divinity that is love.

For this reason, Jung forged a reconciliation… to healing… to the divine. Read him if you dare. Open mindedness to all possibility is the ideal. There we may see there is no need for attack and defense — all that is real is love and all that is unreal is fear. A focused and sustained attention enables us to see our attachments, clinging to suffering, attempts to avert imagination from fears to fantasy, an so on. We must seek hope of releasing their hold on us. A focused and relaxed attention equips us to contact, collect, and organize our inner energies; to support the emergence of consciousness from the lower energies. Attention enables us to relate to other people and provide possibility of opening our heart-mind. Heart animates life in the present moment. Taking the present moment as an opportunity then for connecting with Holy Spirit, directing our attention toward the Divine, in true prayer, Spirit creates a channel through us by which the higher-self may awaken… into consciousness.

It is the subjective, anti-scientific, mystical aspect of Jung that attracted me to his works and to embrace some of his theories. During his time, Jung was mistakenly identified as a scientist. This simply is not the case. His great work of identifying personality characteristics can be and has been integrated into modern scientific works. However, his methods were not scientific.

So, here for you is another update of lifelong lessons of mine — a bit more of The Hunt For Truth of spiritual awakening. Its not really a book review, not really a summary of my learning, but a fair summary of my fascination with Jung and his book. He had got me thinking. This is really my findings for myself upon reflection of the genius of Carl Gustav Jung.

Jung, Brief Biography (Amazon)

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, an influential thinker and the founder of analytic psychology (also known as Jungian psychology). Jung’s radical approach to psychology has been influential in the field of depth psychology and in counter-cultural movements across the globe. Jung is considered as the first modern psychologist to state that the human psyche is “by nature religious” and to explore it in depth. His many major works include “Analytic Psychology: Its Theory and Practice,” “Man and His Symbols,” “Memories, Dreams, Reflections,” “The Collected Works of Carl G. Jung,” and “The Red Book.”

Jung, Beliefs (Youtube)

Carl Jung and Gnosticism

Program Description This is a clip from a British documentary, however the exact source is not identified.

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Program Description The World Within – C.G. Jung in His Own Words
A 1990 Documentary about Carl Gustav Jung that explains his standpoints mainly by using footage of him talking.

More Carl Jung videos (YouTube playlist)

I would love to know if Jung is of further interest to readers. Likes are wonderful, but if you have a few moments, please let me know how this post and/or the related posts are of interest for you. I do this work for myself, but I do very much welcome having some comments and feedback.

Thanks for reading.

Eric