“The knowledge of death came to me that night… I went into the inner death and saw that outer dying is better than inner death. And, I decided to die outside and live within… I turned away and sought the place of the inner life.” Red Book

Tomorrow is the sixtieth anniversary of Dr Carl Gustav Jung’ death, and I wonder as I see the genius and power of his knowledge is getting huger and more and more extensive. I want humbly to drop some notes on this Master.

I have once mentioned that as Al and I got to know DR Sigmund Freud and were fascinated about the psyche, Dr Jung came to us not just as the student of Dr Freud but as a newcomer Master in beyond the psyche.

Actually, the term was the UFO, as we were entangled in the early 70s, and we’d noticed how a psychologist deals with this topic. It was not only an analysis of the psyche of humans but a universal analyse through galaxies. I don’t want to say that he’s a superman. I but believe that he’s superior for sure.

He has shown us many doors in the human’s soul, which we couldn’t even know how closed are they. We can open them one after another if understanding him, and his teaching is so extensive that after so many years, we have still a lot to learn.

And there is a message, his message, for all of us. We can and might have to look at “Death” in this way:

Here is a beautiful tribute to Dr Jung by Susanne Heine. It’s written in German. Hence I translate it into English. Though if someone knows German, the original is here.

GEDANKEN FÜR DEN TAG. The sixtieth anniversary of the death of Dr Carl Gustav Jung

Susanne Heine über Carl Gustav Jung

(“Gott in mir”. Anlässlich dessen 60. Todestages blickt die evangelische Theologin und Professorin für Religionspsychologie der Universität Wien, Susanne Heine, auf die herausfordernde Gedankenwelt C. G. Jungs.)

“God in me”. On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of his death, the Protestant theologian and professor for the psychology of religion at the University of Vienna, Susanne Heine, takes a look at C. G. Jung’s challenging world of ideas.

“It is really not easy to get into conversation with theologians”, complains the old gentleman in a letter from 1953, because “they only hear themselves and call this the word of God”. The old man was Carl Gustav Jung. Eight years later, in June 1961, he died in Küsnacht on Lake Zurich at the age of 86, i.e. 60 years ago.

Jung knows what he’s talking about. His father is a pastor of the Swiss Reformed Church. The rectory and the church are in Laufen, on a rocky outcrop, with the Rhine Falls roaring below. Jung spends his early childhood there: in nature between the bright sun and the dark and dangerous river that washes many a corpse onto the bank. The fact that light and dark are closely interwoven will accompany Jung throughout his life.

The family moves to a country parish near Basel and Jung lives in the routine of church life. He asks about the meaning of the rites and teachings, but his father answers with lifeless theological phrases or admits that he simply does not understand many things himself. The son feels left alone and notes about the theologians: “Here we go, they don’t know anything about it and don’t think anything either.” Then how can you talk about it? I suspect that Jung speaks from the heart to many, even if they do not have a pastor for a father.

With Jung, this is reflected in dark dreams. When he was about twelve years old, he saw himself standing in front of the Basel Minster, above the throne of God in heaven. Suddenly a large pile of dung falls down from there and destroys the church. He realizes: “The church was a place to which I was no longer allowed to go. There was no life there for me, but death.” With this, C. G. Jung says goodbye to theology and the church, but not to religion and God, whom he encounters in other ways.

I am honoured to know this genius, and I much appreciate his teaching.

Service

Das C.G. Jung Lesebuch, 5. Auflage, Walter Verlag, 1998.
Aniela Jaffé: Erinnerungen, Träume und Gedanken von C.G. Jung, 11. Auflage, Walter Verlag, 1999.
Susanne Heine: Grundlagen der Religionspsychologie, Kapitel 8: C.G. Jung – die göttliche Natur, UTB 2528, Verlag Vandenhoeck&Ruprecht, 2005.

https://oe1.orf.at/programm/20210531/639227/Susanne-Heine-ueber-Carl-Gustav-Jung