psychology

The Psychology of The Child Archetype (P4)

Standard

The Function of The Archetype

I laid awake for at least three hours last night! In fact, I fell asleep initially but woke up after about two hours, and my thoughts started working. It’s not the first time I’ve been lying awake more often lately. The reason is not any concern about private life; however, there are enough issues to consider, and not limited to my birthplace, Iran and its young freedom fighters; what worries me is the future of humanity as a whole. A theory develops in my head!

These days, I’m very busy with the world’s condition. I see how humanity is on a downward spiral and think about what could be the reason, and it forced me to theorize!

I see greed and hate. I see children suffering due to the thoughtlessness and mistakes of their parents, and politics makes it worse. While I might bite my tongue, I ask myself, is it not better to die as a child than to grow up and continue fighting? How can someone believe that peace can be achieved by bombarding a folk? How is it possible to forget one’s pain of losing the mother, father, or entire family? Those who sow hatred will reap vengeance!

I observe how people chase after happiness as it slips away, and I believe that our obsession with money, possessions, and accumulating more and more has caused us to lose sight of what truly matters – enjoying life.
I believe that enjoyment lies in the limitation of having!
As Lao Tzu said: Have little, and you will gain. Have much, and you will be confused.

The entire statement is instructive:
Bend, and you will be whole. Curl, and you will be straight. Keep empty, and you will be filled. Grow old, and you will be renewed.
Have little, and you will gain. Have much, and you will be confused.
“Tao Te Ching: Chapter 22” by Lao Tzu

What we often forget is that the child in us never dies! I have previously shared some information on this topic (as it is part 4). In Part 1, I provided a translated summary of “The Archetype as a Past State.” Now, I would like to share Dr. Jung’s thesis on Child Archetypes: “The Function of the Archetype”, which may help us understand and awaken in adulthood.
To begin with, I will provide a brief introduction to Archetypes.

(Archetypes are not myths themselves but rather components of myths due to their typical nature. They are present in myths, fairy tales, dreams, and even psychotic fantasy products. In an individual, archetypes appear as unreal manifestations of unconscious processes. In myths, they are traditional forms of mostly inestimable age. These myths are usually tribal, transmitted from generation to generation through retelling. The primitive mind state differs from the civilized one primarily in that consciousness is much less developed in extent and intensity. The spontaneity of the act of thinking lies in the unconscious.)

Carl Jung: The Integration of The Personality, P. 285

The Function of the Archetype (On the psychology of the child archetype (1940): In the Pantheon Akademische Verlagsanstallt, Amsterdam and Leipzig 1940, under the title “The Divine Child.)

The child motif not only represents something that has been and is long past but also something present. That means it is not just a remnant but a currently functioning system intended to meaningfully compensate for or correct the inevitable one-sidedness and extravagances of consciousness. The essence of consciousness is concentration on relatively few contents, which are, if possible, increased to a level of complete clarity. Consciousness has a necessary consequence and prerequisite, the exclusion of other contents that are currently equally capable of consciousness. This exclusion inevitably causes a certain one-sidedness in the content of consciousness. Since the differentiated consciousness of civilized people is now given an effective instrument for the practical implementation of its contents in the form of the dynamics of the will, the greater the development of the will, the greater the danger of straying into one-sidedness and of digressing into lawlessness and rootlessness.

On the one hand, this is the possibility of human freedom, but on the other hand, it is also the source of endless instinctual contradictions. Primitive humans are, therefore, characterized – from the point of view of instinct, like animals – by neophobia and attachment to tradition. To our liking, it is embarrassingly backward while we praise progress. On the one hand, our progressiveness makes many of the most beautiful wish fulfillments possible. Still, on the other hand, an equally gigantic Promethean debt accumulates, which from time to time requires repayment in the form of fateful catastrophes. How long has humanity dreamed of flying, and now we have already arrived at aerial bombardments! Today, people laugh at the Christian hope for the afterlife and often fall into chiliasms, which are a hundred times more unreasonable than the idea of a joyful afterlife! Differentiated consciousness is always threatened by uprooting, which is why compensation is required through the still-existing childhood state.

Carl Jung Foreword: The Inner World Of The Child – Carl Jung Depth Psychology

However, from the standpoint of progress, compensation symptoms are formulated in unflattering terms, such as inertia, backwardness, scepticism, nagging, conservatism, timidity, pettiness, etc. But insofar as humanity has a high degree of ability to get rid of its own foundations, it can also allow itself to be carried away uncritically by dangerous one-sidedness and even catastrophe. The retarding ideal is always more primitive, more natural (in a good or bad sense) and more “moral” insofar as it adheres faithfully to the traditional law. The progressive ideal is always more abstract, unnatural, and “immoral,” which requires disloyalty to tradition. Progress forced by will is always hard and cramped. Although backwardness is close to naturalness, it is constantly threatened by an embarrassing awakening. The older view was aware that progress is only possible ‘Deo Concedente’, with which it identifies itself through the possession of opposite consciousness and repeats the ancient >rites d’entrée et de sortie< to a higher level. But the more consciousness differentiates, the greater the danger of its separation from the root state. The complete separation occurs when the ‘Deo Concedente’ is forgotten. It is now a psychological principle that a part of the soul that has been split off from consciousness is only apparently inactivated, but in reality, leads to an obsession of the personality, whereby its objective is distorted in the sense of the part of the soul that has been split off. Suppose the childlike state of the collective soul is repressed to the point of complete exclusion. In that case, the unconscious content takes control of the conscious goal, whereby its realization is inhibited, falsified or even destroyed. However, viable progress only comes about through the cooperation of both. (Archetypen, dtv.)

Children are our fellowship for the future, and our responsibility is to leave a legacy that fosters their growth and development. Thank you for reading.🙏💖🙏

Carl Jung, The Red Book; Soul and God

Standard
Francisco de Holanda – De aetatibus mundi imagines – 1545

I won’t bore you with a lengthy account of my personal life. Still, I will mention that my wife and I had to take care of our cute grandchildren all week due to the lack of support from the German government for kindergarten care and education (the two issues are assumed to be unimportant!). We are also facing a death (redemption!) in the family, which I will write about later.

Amidst all the chaos, I found solace in reading my “holy book”, The Red Book, by Dr. Jung, attempting to nourish my soul. I hope you can find some comfort in reading it, too.🙏

[H I ii(r) 2] Cap. ii (P. 130, 131, 132; Liber Primus, A Reader’s Edition)

On the second night, I called out to my soul (Nov. 14, 1913):

I am weary, my soul, my wondering has lasted too long, my search for myself outside myself. Now, I have gone through events and found you behind them, for I made discoveries on my erring through events, humanity, and the world. I found men. And you, my soul, I found again, first in images within men and then you yourself. I found you where I least expected you. You climbed out of a dark shaft. You announced yourself to me in advance in dreams (which were dark to me and which I sought to grasp in my own inadequate way). They burned in my heart, drove me to all the boldest acts of daring, and forced me to rise above myself. You let me see truths of which I had no previous inkling. You let me undertake journeys whose endless length would have scared me if the knowledge of them had not been secure in you.

I wandered for many years, so long that I forgot that I possessed a soul (I belonged to men and things. I did not belong to myself {Black Book 2}). Where were you all this time? Which Beyond sheltered you and gave you sanctuary? Oh, you must speak through me, that my speech and I are your symbol and expression! How should I decipher you?

Who are you, child? My dreams have represented you as a child and as a maiden (and I found you again only through the soul of the woman {Black Book 2}). I am ignorant of your mystery (Look! I bear a wound that is as yet not healed: my ambition to make an impression {Black Book 2}). Forgive me if I speak as in a dream, like a drunkard – are you God? Is God a child, a maiden? (I must tell myself most clearly: does He use the image of a child that lives in everyman’s soul? Were Horus, Tags, and Christ not children? Dionysus and Heracles were also divine children. Did Christ, the God of man, not called himself the son of man? What was his innermost thought when doing so? Should the daughter of man be God’s name {Black Book 2})? Forgive me if I bobble. No one else hears me. I speak to you quietly, and you know that I am neither a drunkard nor someone deranged, and my heart twists in pain from the wound, whose darkness delivers speeches full of mockery: “You are lying to yourself! You spoke so as to deceive others and make them believe in you. You want to be a prophet and chase after your ambition.” The wound still bleeds, and I am far from being able to pretend that I do not hear the mockery.

How strange it sounds to me to call you a child, you who still hold the all-without-end in your hand (how thick the earlier darkness was! How impetuous and egoistic my passion was, subjugated by all the diamonds of ambition, the desire for glory, greed, uncharitableness, and zeal! How ignorant I was at the time! Life tore me away, and I deliberately moved away from you, and I have done so far all these years. I recognise how good all of this was, but I thought you were lost, even though I sometimes thought I was lost. But you were not lost. I went on the way of the day. You went invisibly with me and guided me step by step, putting the pieces together meaningfully {Black Book 2}) and letting me see the whole in each part.

You took away where I thought to take hold and gave me where I did not expect anything. Time and again, you brought about fate from new and unexpected quarters. Where I sowed, you robbed me of the harvest, and where I did not sow, you gave it to me again where I would never have foreseen it. You upheld my belief when I was alone and near despair. At every decisive moment, you let me believe in myself.

I appreciate your being here. Have a lovely weekend.🙏💖🤗🌹🦋

The Everyday Boredom of Life!

Standard

I’m not sure if any of you have experienced a feeling like I did a few days ago. It’s hard to put into words, but I will try: I had a few things I wanted to remember and sort out in my head, but I wasn’t sure if they were just dreams or had actually happened!

Have you ever had moments when you couldn’t tell if something that happened the previous day was real or just a dream? It reminded me of schizophrenia, which was quite frightening. It’s like having a blurred line between reality and imagination, making it challenging to distinguish what’s real and what’s not. The reason for all this may be a dream I had the night before.

That night, I had a dream I can still recall. In the dream, I saw Robbie Williams, who had released an album that wasn’t a hit! The album was dull, and he was pretty upset about it, though he always had great help from his mate Guy Chambers. I haven’t ever been a big fan of his and haven’t purchased any of his singles. I have only heard his songs on the radio and listened to them once and not more. That’s why I find it strange that he appeared in my dream.

Painting by Santiago Caruso

Next, a young girl appeared during my dream and offered me her new album. I liked that, though she said she would mix it up with Robbie Williams’ album. Truthfully, they matched perfectly together and became a great hit!

When I told my wife about that, she said it was time for me to begin writing music again! Her advice refers to my earlier time in Germany.

It was around the early ’90s when I used to play guitar on the streets, and as I had only music in my head, I attempted composing, and I managed to write a few songs, which I recorded using an MC (my friends who are my age would know what I am referring to!). The recordings included drums, rhythm guitar, solos, and vocals. I played all these by myself in my tiny room those days with the help of two cassette recorders; poor me! You should see how talented I was!! I suppose this MC is in our basement, in a plastic bag, spending the last minutes of her life.

The main subject I aim to cover is our everyday lives and how boring they can be. Therefore, I took my recent post from Facebook with a quote by Marie-Louise von Franz on this topic. I will compare it with the life of an artist who can live without any single sign of being bored.

Illustration by Wojtek Siudmak – Matter.

Boredom is a symptom of life being dammed up, that one does not know how to get what one has within oneself into reality. — Marie-Louise von Franz, The Problem of the Puer Aeternus

While considering my own, my wife’s, or my friend’s everyday lives, I often ponder why everything seems so mundane. Even the weekends, which should be a time for rest and enjoyment, can sometimes feel dull and uneventful, especially for those who work tirelessly throughout the week. One does plan to enjoy a meeting, going to Cinema to watch a good movie, or driving for a side trip, the time runs out fast like the wind, and it is again the damnd Monday! Of course, it might be because I am retired now and have an eye from a distance.
I believe that the problem is the lack of creativity. Most people end up in jobs they have never chosen or desired; they do that only to make money. Don’t you think these repeated days doing almost the same thing make it no fun anymore? However, for an artist, every new day is a challenge in creating new art.

The pointé is here in Dr. Jung’s words; even then, I comprehended it much better now.

Via Quozio

How can an artist’s life not be boring?

As a child, I had different career aspirations, such as becoming a pilot free of borders or terrain. Still, in my youth, my only wish was to be a music composer, and every morning, I would go to my studio to make a new song. That’s why I think the lucky people who make art or do something similar will never feel bored!

I am convinced that we all were created to create, and art is our way of creating. Therefore, when we are forced to do something else without lust and passion, which, unfortunately, has become common in society, the outcomes are wasted fruits.

After pouring out my heart with the hope that I will achieve my goal of conveying my message to you, I want to mention that next week is the Eastern holiday, and I will probably be absent and miss your kind reactions and feedback. However, I might try to post using the WP timer! Let’s see what happens; until then, I appreciate your visits and hope you have a lovely time, everybody. 🤗💖💥🖖

The illustration at the top is by Micha Lobi.

Women’s Day? Women’s World! The Man’s Unrevealed Better Half!

Standard
Egyptian civilization. Papyrus. Scene of creation. The sky-goddess Nut, covered with stars, is generated by Geb, the god of the earth. Reconstruction of a fresco from a tomb at Thebes, Valley of the Kings. Cairo, Istituto Del Papiro

As we all know, yesterday marked International Women’s Day, and many posts were published on this topic. I apologize for being late to the celebration; I was until now occupied with my grandson, Ilias! This is the first time I have decided to participate in this acknowledgement match, not just because of a lack of time but because I have some reservations about celebrating a cause on a single day and then forgetting about it for the rest of the year. Perhaps it’s true that those in charge choose to memorialize and celebrate under a specific title to alleviate their guilt instead of resolving the issues. However, I believe in using this special day to awaken their consciousness and galvanize them into action.

How well described Marion Woodman about the core of the issue.

via Petra Glimmdall 🙏💖

I have frequently written about women’s missing rights and opportunities in society, and I have noticed that progress is being made. A recent example is the approval of a new law by the French parliament to add the right to abortion to their constitution. Bravo! Viva France!

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité:

The concept is that if we believe in the duality of everything: cold – warm, above – below, bright – dark, woman – man, etc. Then, they not only mutually prove each other’s existence but also complement each other’s evolution. To comprehend these concepts, we should ponder twice (as the Germans say: Nachdenken!). Coldness would hold no significance if we always had everything cold and were unaware of warmth. Similarly, if we were constantly surrounded by brightness without ever experiencing darkness, we would never be able to comprehend the value of brightness. And it would be the same about feminine and masculine: Anima & Animus.

via Carl Jung Depth Psychology

C. G. Jung introduced terms to describe specific functions of the human “soul” and “mind” ( Anima and Animus, Latin). I have published a partitional post about this issue before. Anima names the feminine unconscious factor in a man, while animus applies to the corresponding masculine factor in a woman’s unconscious.

I believe these are suitable lessons that will make us aware of how to help each other along the difficult path towards achieving the goal or the Self. This is how we can help each other because without encountering the other side, we are incomplete!

However, I have to repeat myself sadly, of man’s blindness as his stupid vanity has damaged a perhaps brave new world!

via Petra Glimmdall 🙏💖

The Odyssey of Carl Jung

Standard

Or a Sequel to THE WAY OF WHAT IS TO COME.

I am an orphan, alone; nevertheless, I am found everywhere. I am one but opposed to myself. I am a youth and an old man at one and the same time. I have known neither father nor mother because I have had to be fetched out of the deep like a fish or fell like a white stone from heaven. In woods and mountains, I roam, but I am hidden in the innermost soul of man. I am mortal for everyone, yet I am not touched by the cycle of aeons.

Illustrated by Petra Glimmdall 💖🙏

C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, p.227. (Bollingen Tower)

I made this part separately to show how instructive Dr Jung is, even though he didn’t want to teach! After describing his dreams, with the last one ending full of hope with him standing in front of a tree bearing leaves but no fruit, which then transforms into sweet grapes full of healing juice, Dr Jung, although humble, shares his wisdom and knowledge from his vast experience. Despite his insistence that he never intends to teach or give lessons, we can appreciate the profound wisdom contained within his words.

Title image:  “Bleeding Light” By Jeffrey Smith.

Drawings by Jane Adams

Liber Primus fol.i(v)

In reality, now, it was so: At the time when the great war broke out between the peoples of Europe, I found myself in Scotland, compiled by the war to choose the fastest ship and shortest road home. I encountered the colossal cold that froze everything; I met up with the flood, the sea of blood, and found my barren tree whose leaves the frost had transformed into a remedy. And I plucked the ripe fruit and gave it to you, and I do not know what I poured out for you, what bittersweet intoxicating drink left an aftertaste of blood on your tongues.

Believe me (my friends): It is no teaching and no instruction that I give you. On what basis should I presume to teach you? I provide you with news of this man’s way but not of your own way. My path is not your path; therefore, I / cannot teach you! (CF. the contrast to John 14:6: “Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the father but by me.) The way is within us, but not in Gods, nor in teachings, nor in laws. Within us is the way, the truth, and the life.

Woe betide those who live by way of examples! Life is not with them. If you live according to an example, you thus live the life of that example, but who should live your own life if not yourself? So live yourselves. (This is not a law, but notice of the fact that the time of example and law, and of the straight line drawn in advance, has become overripe”p.10)

The signposts have fallen; unblazed trails lie before us. (My tongue shall wither if I serve up laws if I prattle to you about teaching. Those who seek such will leave my table hungry!) Do not be greedy to gobble up the fruits of foreign fields. Do you not know that you yourselves are the fertile acre which bears everything that avails you?

Salvador_dali-self-portrait_1954

Yet, who today knows this? Who knows the way to eternally fruitful climes of the soul? You seek the way through mere appearances, you study books and give an ear to all kinds of opinions. What good is all that?
There is only one way, and that is your way. (only one law exists, and that is your law. Only one truth exists, and that is your truth”p.10)

May each go their own way!

I will be no saviour, no lawgiver, no master teacher unto you. You are no longer little children. (One should not turn people into sheep, but sheep into people. The spirit of the depth demands this, who is beyond present and past. Speak and write for those who want to listen and read. But do not run after someone so you do not soil the dignity of humanity- it is a rare good. A sad demise in dignity is better than an undignified healing. Whoever wants to be a doctor of the soul sees people as being sick. He offends human dignity. It is presumptuous to say that man is sick. Whoever wants to be the soul’s shepherd treats people like sheep. He violates human dignity. It is insolent to say that people are like sheep. Who gives you the right to say that man is sick and a sheep? Give them human dignity so they may find their ascendancy or downfall, their way”p. 11)

Art by Josephine Wall

Giving laws, bettering, making things easier, has all become wrong and evil. May each one seek out their own way. This way leads to mutual love in the community. Men will come to see and feel the similarity and community of their ways.
Laws and teachings held in common compel people to solitude so that they may escape the pressure of undesirable contact, but solitude makes people hostile and venomous.

Therefore, give people dignity and let each of them stand apart so that each may find their own fellowship and love it.
Power stands against power, contempt against contempt, love against love. Give humanity dignity and trust that life will find a better way.
The one eye of the Godhead is blind, the one ear of the Godhead is deaf, and the order of its being is crossed by chaos. So be patient with the crippleness of the world and do not overvalue its consummate beauty. (This is all, my dear friends, that I can tell you about the grounds and aims of my message, which I am burdened with like the patient donkey with a heavy load. He is glad to put it down!”p.12)

🙏💖🌟

The Way of What is to Come.

Standard

The Red Book by C. G. Jung, Liber Primus fol. i(v)

As I continue to read Carl Jung’s book, The Red Book, I find myself wondering how his words are so relatable to me. They touch me deeply and feel familiar. I do not speak often and tend to keep to myself. However, I want to learn how to express myself more creatively using images. I long to see a sign of mercy that will give me hope and belief, even though I still wish to have visions like Jung had.

He conversed with the spirits, the spirit of the time, the spirit of depth, talking about the Supreme Meaning by the fact that he is laughter and worship; a bloody laughter and a bloody worship. A sacrificial blood binds the poles. Jung has his humanity for help: What solitude, he said, what a coldness of destruction you lay upon me when you speak such! Reflect on the destruction of being and the streams of blood from the terrible sacrifice that the depth demands (Referring to Jung’s vision). Dr Jung had visions which became a reality throughout his time. He was excited, not sure if schizophrenia was threatening him. However, every genius seems to have this ability, as my brother Al had it.

As we observe the world today, starting wars easily, bombing, and killing have become routine occurrences, it might not be necessary for us to have the kind of visions that Dr. Jung had in his time. However, his words hold significance since they reflect a deeper insight into the human psyche.

Carl Jung On Psychosis
Carl Jung Depth Psychology

Let’s read what he speaks about his visions:

“But the spirit of the depths uttered: No one can or should halt sacrifice. Sacrifice is not destruction; sacrifice is the foundation stone of what is to come…
“The mercy that happened to me gave me belief, hope, and sufficient daring not to resist the spirit of the depths further but so utter his words. But before I could pull myself together to really do it, I needed a visible sign that would show me that the spirit of the depths in me was, at the same time, the ruler of the depths of world affairs.

It happened in October 1813, when I was living alone on a journey. During the day, I was suddenly overcome by a vision in broad daylight: I saw a terrible flood that covered all the northern and low-lying lands between the North Sea and the Alps. It reached from England up to Russia and from the coast of the North Sea right up to the Alps. I saw yellow waves swimming through rubble and the death of countless thousands.

Carl Jung: “On Pictures In Psychiatric Diagnosis” – Carl Jung Depth Psychology

The vision lasted two hours; it confused me and made me ill. I was not able to interpret it. Two weeks passed, then the vision returned, still more violent than before, and an inner voice spoke: “”Look at it; it is completely real, and it will come to pass. You cannot doubt this.“” I wrestled again for two hours with this vision, but it held me fast. It left me exhausted and confused. And I thought my mind had gone crazy.

Jung discussed this vision on several occasions, stressing different details like in his 1925 seminar Introduction to Jungian Psychology (p. 44f), to Mircea Eliade, and Memories (pp. 199-200):

{Jung’s versions were frightening as he saw even a sea of blood over the northern lands. He explains: }

As a psychiatrist, I became worried, wondering if I was not on the way to “doing a schizophrenia,” as we said in the language of those days… I was just preparing a lecture on schizophrenia to be delivered at a congress in Aberdeen, and I kept saying to myself: “I’ll be speaking of myself! Very likely, I’ll go mad after reading out this paper.” The congress was to take place in July 1914 – exactly the same period when I saw myself in my three dreams voyaging on the Southern seas. On July 31st, immediately after my lecture, I learned from the newspapers that war had broken out. Finally, I understood. And when I disembarked in Holand on the next day, nobody was happier than I. Now, I was sure that no schizophrenia was threatening me. I understood that my dreams and my visions came to me from the subsoil of the collective unconscious. What remained for me to do now was to deepen and validate this discovery. And this is what I have been trying to do for forty years.

The fire from the egg in Carl Jung’s Red book

In the year 1914, in the month of June, at the beginning and end of the month, and at the beginning of July, I had the same dream three times: I was in a foreign land, and suddenly, overnight and right in the middle of the summer, a terrible cold descended from space. All seas and rivers were ice-locked, and every green living thing had frozen.
The second dream was thoroughly similar to this. But the third dream at the beginning of July went as follows: I was in a remote English land. It was necessary that I return to my homeland with a fast ship as speedily as possible. I reached home quickly. In my homeland, I found that in the middle of summer, a terrible cold had fallen from space, which had turned every living thing into ice. There stood a leaf-bearing but fruitless tree, whose leaves had turned into sweet grapes full of healing juice through the working of the frost (like the ice wine). I picked some grapes and gave them to a great waiting throng.

[Draft: This was my dream. All my efforts to understand it were in vain. I laboured for days. Its impression, however, was powerful (p.9). Jung also recounted this dream in Memories].

Can we interpret the end of his dream, where sweet grapes are present, as a positive outcome of human madness? Who knows! Anyhow, hope dies last.🙏💖

Source: The Red Book by C. G. Jung, Liber Novus, A Reader’s Edition; Sonu Shamdasani

Title illustration by Mariusz Lewandowski

The Supreme Meaning!

Standard

Liber Primusfol.i(v) p. 120, Reader’s Edition

I am getting older (does not everybody do this?!), though I feel this ageing more and more as I’m heading towards my seventieth of that day in which I’ve opened my eyes to the sun. That’s why one may contemplate deeply about religion and the purpose of life, striving to understand and grasp the concept of God, as I am daring to do today.

When I became acquainted with C.G. Jung, I realized that I had found a guide who could help me think more clearly to find answers to my questions. I don’t know about you, but I believe that when ageing, one feels more solitude and begins to enjoy it. However, it’s important to note that he is not a saviour but rather a teacher who can point the way and offer valuable insights through his writings, particularly in his Red Book.

For me, the Red Book by Carl Jung is like the holy book. I may say it is like the Bible for a Christian, or the Koran for a Muslim, and the same as the Torah for a Jew, etc. The difference between them is that Dr Jung never tries to make statements of one particular God as their messenger but tries to define how a god can be definite! Here comes the concept: Supreme Meaning! The melting of sense and nonsense. And I think that this aspect needs a broad view.

The supreme meaning is great and small; it is as wide as the space of the starry Heaven and as narrow as the cell of the living body. C.G. Jung, The Red Book: Liber Novus.

I present you a small part, a page, of his words of knowledge on this concept. I hope it opens one or more doors in your life as it did for mine.

Portrait by Olga KURKINA

The spirit of the depths took my understanding and all my knowledge and placed them at the service of the inexplicable and the paradoxical. He rubbed me of speech and wrote me for everything that was not in his service, namely the melting together of sense and nonsense, which produces the supreme meaning.
But the supreme meaning is the path, the way and the bridge to what is to come. That is the God yet to come. It is not the coming God himself, but his image which appears in the supreme meaning. (1)

God is an image, and those who worship him must worship him in the image of the supreme meaning. The supreme meaning is not a meaning and not an absurdity; it is image and force in one, magnificence and force together.

The supreme meaning is the beginning and the end. It is the bridge of going across and fulfilment. (2)

The other Gods died of their temporality, yet the supreme meaning never dies; it turns into meaning and then into absurdity, and out of the fire and blood of their collision, the supreme meaning rises up rejuvenated anew.

The image of God has a shadow. The supreme meaning is real and casts a shadow. For what can be actually corporeal and have no shadow?

The shadow is nonsense. It lacks force and has no continued existence through itself. But nonsense is the inseparable and undying brother of the supreme meaning.

Like plants, so men also grow, some in the light, others in the shadows. There are many who need the shadows and not the light.

The image of God throws a shadow that is just as great as itself.

The supreme meaning is great and small; it is as wide as the space of starry Heaven and as narrow as the cell of the living body.

1- In Transformations and Symbol of the Libido (1912), Jung interpreted God as a symbol of the libido (CW B, §111). In this subsequent work, Jund laid great emphasis on the distinction between the God image and the metaphysical existence of God (cf. passages added to the revised retitled 1952 edition, Symbols of Transformation, CW 5, § 95)

2- The terms Hinübergehen (going across, passing over), Übergang (transition), Untergang (down-going, downfall), and Brücke (bridge) feature in Nietzsche’s Zarathustra in relation to the passage from man to the Übermensch (superman). For example, “What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal; what can be loved in man is that he is a “going-across” and a “downfall”. //I love those who do not know how to live except their lives be a “downfall”, for they are those who are going over”(tr. R. Hollingdale [Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1984], p. 44, tr. mod; words are asunderlined in Jung’s copy).

Top image by Ettore Aldo Del Vigo

Thank you for your support. 💖🙏🌹

The individuation; Anima and Animus. Carl Jung (P. 5)

Standard

“Without the true masculine spirit and true feminine love within, no inner life exists. To be free is to break the stone images and allow life and love to flow… ~Marion Woodman; taken from a beautiful poem by a brilliant poet, rhymester, and valuable friend of mine: Deborah Gregory.

I have resumed an (other) old series of my posts that I believe has become increasingly relevant in light of a recent webinar on X (formerly Twitter), where Iranian participants discussed the challenges faced by individuals of different genders and sexualities (LGBT+) in Iran. However, I refrained from discussing Dr. Jung’s theories on Anima and Animus, as I knew they were unfamiliar with this topic. During meetings, I don’t speak much due to my taciturn nature. Instead, I act as a microphone for my friend who lives in Iran and cannot clearly talk in the meetings.

In this particular webinar about gender, I noticed how important it is to know about the Jungian ideas about our species and the terms Anima and Animus in all of us, whether masculine or feminine.
Marion Woodman says:
“The word’ feminine,’ as I understand it, has very little to do with gender, nor is woman the custodian of femininity. Both men and women are searching for their pregnant virgin. She is the part of us who is outcast, the part who comes to consciousness through going into darkness, mining our leaden darkness, until we bring her silver out.”

Yes! Such terms are too early for a nation which is still under pressure from the masculine’s religious domain. I was surprised to hear discussions about such issues in a country still heavily influenced by traditional religious beliefs. That became possible because of the efforts of Shadi Amin, an LGBT+ activist at 6rang.org.💖🙏

Work by Petra Glimmdall 💖

To notice it is a big problem even in the West: I know many men here in Germany, where I live, who make jokes about the subject, and gay is a swear word for them! Of course, freedom, which is common in the West, can’t mean that the people have understood it profoundly. It can be difficult to grasp the concept fully, even though I have noticed numerous misconceptions in the Jungian groups on Facebook, and I see how many falsehoods have lost their way there!

In this scenario, it is crucial to maintain an open mindset and not be limited by fundamental rules and principles. I am not suggesting that one must always be “modern,” but rather that we should exercise our imagination. We should put aside our fears and dive into the world of fantasy.

After death, it is unimaginable that there would be feminine or masculine ghosts, for souls do not have a gender.

I’d like to share another explanation from Jung on this topic. As humans, we are filled with fears, anxieties, desires, and aspirations. Jung says in on this:

But there is something to be said about the fear of the other side that is peculiar to us Westerners. This fear is not entirely unjustified, not to mention the fact that it is real. We readily understand the child’s and the primitive’s fear of the vast, unknown world. We have the same fear in our childlike inner side, where we also touch a vast, unknown world…
The fear is now justified insofar as the rational worldview (Weltanschauung) with its much-believed (because doubtful) scientific and moral certainties is being shaken by the data from the other side.
There are truths that will only be true the day after tomorrow, those that were true yesterday, and those that will not be true at any time.

However, we can open many doors once we learn to embrace our inner selves and overcome the fear of the unknown. After reaching milestones one, two, three, and four, the next milestone could be number five – Last but not least!

anima and animus by polina sladkova

>”But I could imagine that someone would use such a technique out of a kind of holy curiosity, a boy perhaps who doesn’t want to put on wings because his feet are lame but because he longs for the sun. An adult, however, for whom too many illusions have been shattered, will probably only be forced to submit to this inner humiliation and abandonment and will once again endure the child’s fears. It is no small matter to stand between a day world of shattered ideals and unbelievable values and a night world of seemingly senseless fantasy. In fact, the uncanny aspect of this point of view is so significant that there is probably no one who would not reach for certainty, even if it were a “reach backwards” – for example, the mother who protected his (the son’s) childhood from night terrors. Those who are afraid need a dependency, like the weak, need support. That is why even the primitive spirit created the religious doctrine, embodied in magicians and priests, out of the most profound psychological necessity. “Extra ecclesiam nulla Salus” (“Outside the Church, there is no salvation”) – is still a valid truth today – for those who can drawback on it. For the few who cannot, there is only dependence on someone – a humbler and prouder dependency, weaker and more robust support than any, It seems to me. What shall one say of the Protestant? He has neither church nor priest; he only has God – but even God becomes doubtful.”<

Work by Petra Glimmdall 💖

>”The reader will probably ask himself in astonishment, but what does the anima produce that one needs such reassurances to deal with her? I would commend my reader for studying a comparative history of religions so that he feels the accounts dead to us with the emotional life felt by those who lived those religions. This will give him an idea of what lives on the other side. The old religions, with their sublime and ridiculous, benevolent and cruel symbols, did not arise out of thin air but out of this human soul as it lives in us now. All those things, their archetypes, live in us and can break out at any time with devastating force, namely in the form of mass suggestion, against which the individual is defenceless. Our terrible gods have only changed their name; they now rhyme with “ism”. Or does anyone have the voice to say that the World War or Bolshevism was an ingenious invention? Just as we live outwardly in a world where something similar can arise at any time, albeit only in the form of an idea, but no less dangerous and unreliable. Non-adjustment to this inner world is an omission just as fatal as ignorance and incompetence in the outer world. It is also only a tiny fraction of humanity, living chiefly on that densely populated peninsula of Asia projecting towards the Atlantic Ocean, who call themselves ‘the educated’, who, through a defective contact with nature, have conceived the idea that religion is a kind of peculiar mental disorder of inexplicable purpose. Seen from a safe distance, somewhat from Central Africa or Tibet, it appears as if this fraction had projected an unconscious “mental derangement” onto the still instinctively healthy peoples.”<

Work by Petra Glimmdall 💖

Thank you for your visit. 🙏💖🤗

The image on top: Michael Cheval