P S Y C H O L O G Y A N D T H E O C C U L T
"Only by discovering alchemy have I clearly understood that the unconscious is a process and that ego's rapports with the unconscious and his contents initiate an evolution; more precisely a real metamorphoses of the psyche."
C. J. Jung
You've let your guard down, dropped a magical snippet into muggle conversation, suddenly all you can hear is tumbleweed ghosting across an endless prairie; the averted eyes; the red faces - someone coughs annnnnd... change the subject...
Embarrassing, yes, but you'll get over it. And anyway you can take some small comfort from the fact that as conversationalists your fellow party goers have a lot of catching up to do. Way back in the '30s the iconic psychiatrist C. J. Jung had already stumbled on alchemy, gnostics, and a range of other so called 'occult' phenomena and, strangely enough, was successfully integrating them into a, now mainstream, theraputic philosophy. In doing so Jung single handedly rehabilitated alchemists in the public consciousness from medieval con-men into practicioners of an ancient, sophisticated and powerful spiritual discipline.
The 20th century saw psychology recognised as a discrete and important theraputic discipline. The two names which spring instantly to mind are Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung (unfortunately in that order). Freud categorised as the sexually obsessed founder of analytical psychiatry and Jung the mystic and philosopher who came up with the terms 'collective unconscious', 'syncronicity' and 'archetype'. There have been other mighty figures who have helped shape the discipline (Adler, etc) but the approaches of Freud and Jung are still recognised as the twin poles of analytical psychology.
In terms of the subject of this site Jung is the guy to focus on. His writings served as a powerful validation for 'esoteric' subjects generally dismissed as the province of the 'lunatic fringe'. Throughout this website we are addressing similar subjects to those which inspired Jung, namely...
From this broad spectrum, spanning both world history and cultures, Jung developed and introduced three massively influential concepts which are now firmly enshrined in the lexicon of theraputic psychology...
C. J. Jung
You've let your guard down, dropped a magical snippet into muggle conversation, suddenly all you can hear is tumbleweed ghosting across an endless prairie; the averted eyes; the red faces - someone coughs annnnnd... change the subject...
Embarrassing, yes, but you'll get over it. And anyway you can take some small comfort from the fact that as conversationalists your fellow party goers have a lot of catching up to do. Way back in the '30s the iconic psychiatrist C. J. Jung had already stumbled on alchemy, gnostics, and a range of other so called 'occult' phenomena and, strangely enough, was successfully integrating them into a, now mainstream, theraputic philosophy. In doing so Jung single handedly rehabilitated alchemists in the public consciousness from medieval con-men into practicioners of an ancient, sophisticated and powerful spiritual discipline.
The 20th century saw psychology recognised as a discrete and important theraputic discipline. The two names which spring instantly to mind are Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung (unfortunately in that order). Freud categorised as the sexually obsessed founder of analytical psychiatry and Jung the mystic and philosopher who came up with the terms 'collective unconscious', 'syncronicity' and 'archetype'. There have been other mighty figures who have helped shape the discipline (Adler, etc) but the approaches of Freud and Jung are still recognised as the twin poles of analytical psychology.
In terms of the subject of this site Jung is the guy to focus on. His writings served as a powerful validation for 'esoteric' subjects generally dismissed as the province of the 'lunatic fringe'. Throughout this website we are addressing similar subjects to those which inspired Jung, namely...
- Western Mystery Traditions/Alchemy
- Jewish mysticism/Hasidism/Kabbalah
- Gnostics/Christian Mysticism
- Chinese Occult Philosophy - Taoism, I ching
- Indian spiritual disciplines such as Kundalini yoga and Shivaite Hinduism
- Buddhism
From this broad spectrum, spanning both world history and cultures, Jung developed and introduced three massively influential concepts which are now firmly enshrined in the lexicon of theraputic psychology...
- Collective subconscious
- Syncronicity
- Archetypes
BACKGROUND
At some stage in his career Jung crossed over from having an academic interest in mystical philosophy and practices into positing mysticism as science. The unconscious - once little more than a substrata of the mind - suddenly became the universe around us simply by adding the adjective, 'collective'. The collective unconscious became the source of all our behaviors and the home of Jung's archetypes. Suddenly all our individual minds were plugged into a vast mysterious universal mind populated by 'archetypes'.
Ultimately, healing for Jung meant reconciling all the various opposites in our natures and achieving an alchemical transmutation of our base metals into gold, a process he described as 'individuation'. The Chinese philosophy of Taoism with its yin-yang principle of opposites gave him a ready blueprint, and in the coming to terms of the good and evil in ourselves he turned to early Christian Gnosticism.
His idea of the animus and animi - the male and female natures we all possess - is largely derivative of Kundalini yoga and Shivaite Hinduism, and for the completion of the journey he borrowed heavily from Tibetan Buddhism.
Jung was convinced the working of the universe was not entirely random, and he coined a term for it - synchronicity.
Jung argues for a reevaluation of the symbolism of Alchemy as being intimately related to the psychoanalytical process. Using a cycle of dreams of one of his patients he shows how the symbols used by the Alchemists occur in the psyche as part of the reservoir of mythological images drawn upon by the individual in their dream states. Jung draws an analogy between the Great Work of the Alchemists and the process of reintegration and individuation of the psyche in the modern psychiatric patient.
In drawing these parallels Jung reinforces the universal nature of his theory of the archetype and makes an impassioned argument for the importance of spirituality in the psychic health of the modern man.
Jung's use of Kabbalistic symbols and ideas as well as his personal Kabbalistic vision are critically examined. It is argued that as great as Jung's acknowledged affinity is to the Kabbalah, his unacknowledged relationship was even greater. Jung has been accused of being a contemporary Gnostic. However, the interpretations which Jung places on Gnosticism and the texts which Jung refers to on alchemy, were profoundly Kabbalistic, so much so that one would be more justified in calling the Jung of the 'Mysterium Coniunctionis' and other late works, a Kabbalist in contemporary guise.
The three major concept that Jung has been recognised for introducing; collective unconscious, syncronicity and archetypes are powerful modern validations of centuries of western occult philosophy. And as such the work of C. J. Jung greatly contributed to the rise in the interest, and increased respect for esoteric subjects and practices in the second half of the 20th century.
You'll find more detailed studies of these and related topics in the other pages of this section of the site. You'll also find my own spin, mash-ups, observations and half-arsed 'out on a limb' ideas; I'm sure you'll be able to tell the difference.
Jung was associated with Freud for a period of approximately five years, beginning in 1907. Their relationship became increasingly acrimonious. When the final break came in 1913, Jung retreated from many of his professional activities for a time to further develop his own theories. Biographers disagree as to whether this period represented a psychological breakdown.[2]Anthony Storr, reflecting on Jung's own judgment that he was "menaced by a psychosis" during this time, concluded that the period represented a psychotic episode.[3]
Jung referred to the episode as a kind of experiment, a voluntary confrontation with the unconscious.[4] Biographer Barbara Hannah, who was close to Jung later in his life, compared Jung's experiences to the encounter of Menelaus with Proteus in the Odyssey. Jung, she said, "made it a rule never to let a figure or figures that he encountered leave until they had told him why they had appeared to him."[5]
About the Red Book, Jung said:
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.[6]ContentThe work is inscribed by Jung with the title Liber Novus (The New Book). The folio size manuscript, 11.57 inches (29.4 cm) by 15.35 inches (39.0 cm), was bound in a red leather binding, and was commonly referred to as the "Red Book" by Jung. Inside are 205 pages of text and illustrations, all from his hand: 53 are full images, 71 contain both text and artwork and 81 are pure calligraphic text.[7] He began work on it in 1913, first in small black journals, during a difficult period of "creative illness", or confrontation with the unconscious, and it is said to contain some of his most personal material.[8] During the sixteen years he worked on the book, Jung developed his theories of archetypes, collective unconscious, and individuation.[9]
The Red Book was a product of a technique developed by Jung which he termed active imagination. As Jung described it, he was visited by two figures, an old man and a young woman, who identified themselves as Elijah andSalome. They were accompanied by a large black snake. In time, the Elijah figure developed into a guiding spirit that Jung called Philemon (ΦΙΛΗΜΩΝ, as originally written with Greek letters). Salome was identified by Jung as ananima figure. The figures, according to Jung, "brought home to me the crucial insight that there are things in the psyche which I do not produce, but which produce themselves and have their own life."[4]
The Philemon figure represented superior insight and communicated through mythic imagery. The images did not appear to come from Jung's own experience and Jung interpreted them as products of the collective unconscious.[citation needed]
Publication and displayUntil 2001, Jung's heirs refused to permit publication of the book and did not allow scholars access to it.[10] Until September 2009, only about two dozen people had seen it.[11] Historian Sonu Shamdasani, an employee of the Jung heirs and their advisor in the handling of unpublished Jung material, and Stephen Martin, a Jungian analyst, created the Philemon Foundation in order to facilitate publication of Jung's works.
Ulrich Hoerni, Jung's grandson and manager of the Jung archives, decided to publish it after three years of persuasion by Shamdasani.[11] W. W. Norton & Company was preparing an edition of the Red Book in its original German, with English translation and extensive footnoting. In 2007, DigitalFusion scanned it, one-tenth of a millimeter at a time, with a 10,200-pixel scanner.[11] It was published on 7 October 2009.[12]
The Rubin Museum of Art in New York City displayed the original book and Jung's original small journals from 7 October 2009 to 25 January 2010.[9] The Red Book exhibit was also at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles from April 11 – June 6, 2010. A series of Red Book Dialogues with celebrities and psychologists such as James Hillman, Helen Hunt, Leonard Nimoy, Sonu Shamdasani and others was also hosted at the Hammer.[13] The Red Book was on display at the Library of Congress from June 17 – September 25, 2010.[14]
(Note to self: please, pretty please, can I have a copy of Jung's 'Red Book' for my birthday.)
Ultimately, healing for Jung meant reconciling all the various opposites in our natures and achieving an alchemical transmutation of our base metals into gold, a process he described as 'individuation'. The Chinese philosophy of Taoism with its yin-yang principle of opposites gave him a ready blueprint, and in the coming to terms of the good and evil in ourselves he turned to early Christian Gnosticism.
His idea of the animus and animi - the male and female natures we all possess - is largely derivative of Kundalini yoga and Shivaite Hinduism, and for the completion of the journey he borrowed heavily from Tibetan Buddhism.
Jung was convinced the working of the universe was not entirely random, and he coined a term for it - synchronicity.
Jung argues for a reevaluation of the symbolism of Alchemy as being intimately related to the psychoanalytical process. Using a cycle of dreams of one of his patients he shows how the symbols used by the Alchemists occur in the psyche as part of the reservoir of mythological images drawn upon by the individual in their dream states. Jung draws an analogy between the Great Work of the Alchemists and the process of reintegration and individuation of the psyche in the modern psychiatric patient.
In drawing these parallels Jung reinforces the universal nature of his theory of the archetype and makes an impassioned argument for the importance of spirituality in the psychic health of the modern man.
Jung's use of Kabbalistic symbols and ideas as well as his personal Kabbalistic vision are critically examined. It is argued that as great as Jung's acknowledged affinity is to the Kabbalah, his unacknowledged relationship was even greater. Jung has been accused of being a contemporary Gnostic. However, the interpretations which Jung places on Gnosticism and the texts which Jung refers to on alchemy, were profoundly Kabbalistic, so much so that one would be more justified in calling the Jung of the 'Mysterium Coniunctionis' and other late works, a Kabbalist in contemporary guise.
The three major concept that Jung has been recognised for introducing; collective unconscious, syncronicity and archetypes are powerful modern validations of centuries of western occult philosophy. And as such the work of C. J. Jung greatly contributed to the rise in the interest, and increased respect for esoteric subjects and practices in the second half of the 20th century.
You'll find more detailed studies of these and related topics in the other pages of this section of the site. You'll also find my own spin, mash-ups, observations and half-arsed 'out on a limb' ideas; I'm sure you'll be able to tell the difference.
Jung was associated with Freud for a period of approximately five years, beginning in 1907. Their relationship became increasingly acrimonious. When the final break came in 1913, Jung retreated from many of his professional activities for a time to further develop his own theories. Biographers disagree as to whether this period represented a psychological breakdown.[2]Anthony Storr, reflecting on Jung's own judgment that he was "menaced by a psychosis" during this time, concluded that the period represented a psychotic episode.[3]
Jung referred to the episode as a kind of experiment, a voluntary confrontation with the unconscious.[4] Biographer Barbara Hannah, who was close to Jung later in his life, compared Jung's experiences to the encounter of Menelaus with Proteus in the Odyssey. Jung, she said, "made it a rule never to let a figure or figures that he encountered leave until they had told him why they had appeared to him."[5]
About the Red Book, Jung said:
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.[6]ContentThe work is inscribed by Jung with the title Liber Novus (The New Book). The folio size manuscript, 11.57 inches (29.4 cm) by 15.35 inches (39.0 cm), was bound in a red leather binding, and was commonly referred to as the "Red Book" by Jung. Inside are 205 pages of text and illustrations, all from his hand: 53 are full images, 71 contain both text and artwork and 81 are pure calligraphic text.[7] He began work on it in 1913, first in small black journals, during a difficult period of "creative illness", or confrontation with the unconscious, and it is said to contain some of his most personal material.[8] During the sixteen years he worked on the book, Jung developed his theories of archetypes, collective unconscious, and individuation.[9]
The Red Book was a product of a technique developed by Jung which he termed active imagination. As Jung described it, he was visited by two figures, an old man and a young woman, who identified themselves as Elijah andSalome. They were accompanied by a large black snake. In time, the Elijah figure developed into a guiding spirit that Jung called Philemon (ΦΙΛΗΜΩΝ, as originally written with Greek letters). Salome was identified by Jung as ananima figure. The figures, according to Jung, "brought home to me the crucial insight that there are things in the psyche which I do not produce, but which produce themselves and have their own life."[4]
The Philemon figure represented superior insight and communicated through mythic imagery. The images did not appear to come from Jung's own experience and Jung interpreted them as products of the collective unconscious.[citation needed]
Publication and displayUntil 2001, Jung's heirs refused to permit publication of the book and did not allow scholars access to it.[10] Until September 2009, only about two dozen people had seen it.[11] Historian Sonu Shamdasani, an employee of the Jung heirs and their advisor in the handling of unpublished Jung material, and Stephen Martin, a Jungian analyst, created the Philemon Foundation in order to facilitate publication of Jung's works.
Ulrich Hoerni, Jung's grandson and manager of the Jung archives, decided to publish it after three years of persuasion by Shamdasani.[11] W. W. Norton & Company was preparing an edition of the Red Book in its original German, with English translation and extensive footnoting. In 2007, DigitalFusion scanned it, one-tenth of a millimeter at a time, with a 10,200-pixel scanner.[11] It was published on 7 October 2009.[12]
The Rubin Museum of Art in New York City displayed the original book and Jung's original small journals from 7 October 2009 to 25 January 2010.[9] The Red Book exhibit was also at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles from April 11 – June 6, 2010. A series of Red Book Dialogues with celebrities and psychologists such as James Hillman, Helen Hunt, Leonard Nimoy, Sonu Shamdasani and others was also hosted at the Hammer.[13] The Red Book was on display at the Library of Congress from June 17 – September 25, 2010.[14]
(Note to self: please, pretty please, can I have a copy of Jung's 'Red Book' for my birthday.)
At some stage in his career Jung crossed over from having an academic interest in mystical philosophy and practices into positing mysticism as science. The unconscious - once little more than a substrata of the mind - suddenly became the universe around us simply by adding the adjective, 'collective'. The collective unconscious became the source of all our behaviors and the home of Jung's archetypes. Suddenly all our individual minds were plugged into a vast mysterious universal mind populated by 'archetypes'.
Ultimately, healing for Jung meant reconciling all the various opposites in our natures and achieving an alchemical transmutation of our base metals into gold, a process he described as 'individuation'. The Chinese philosophy of Taoism with its yin-yang principle of opposites gave him a ready blueprint, and in the coming to terms of the good and evil in ourselves he turned to early Christian Gnosticism.
His idea of the animus and animi - the male and female natures we all possess - is largely derivative of Kundalini yoga and Shivaite Hinduism, and for the completion of the journey he borrowed heavily from Tibetan Buddhism.
Jung was convinced the working of the universe was not entirely random, and he coined a term for it - synchronicity.
Jung argues for a reevaluation of the symbolism of Alchemy as being intimately related to the psychoanalytical process. Using a cycle of dreams of one of his patients he shows how the symbols used by the Alchemists occur in the psyche as part of the reservoir of mythological images drawn upon by the individual in their dream states. Jung draws an analogy between the Great Work of the Alchemists and the process of reintegration and individuation of the psyche in the modern psychiatric patient.
In drawing these parallels Jung reinforces the universal nature of his theory of the archetype and makes an impassioned argument for the importance of spirituality in the psychic health of the modern man.
Jung's use of Kabbalistic symbols and ideas as well as his personal Kabbalistic vision are critically examined. It is argued that as great as Jung's acknowledged affinity is to the Kabbalah, his unacknowledged relationship was even greater. Jung has been accused of being a contemporary Gnostic. However, the interpretations which Jung places on Gnosticism and the texts which Jung refers to on alchemy, were profoundly Kabbalistic, so much so that one would be more justified in calling the Jung of the 'Mysterium Coniunctionis' and other late works, a Kabbalist in contemporary guise.
The three major concept that Jung has been recognised for introducing; collective unconscious, syncronicity and archetypes are powerful modern validations of centuries of western occult philosophy. And as such the work of C. J. Jung greatly contributed to the rise in the interest, and increased respect for esoteric subjects and practices in the second half of the 20th century.
You'll find more detailed studies of these and related topics in the other pages of this section of the site. You'll also find my own spin, mash-ups, observations and half-arsed 'out on a limb' ideas; I'm sure you'll be able to tell the difference.
(Note to Super-ego: please, pretty please, can we have a copy of Jung's 'Red Book' for our birthday.)
Ultimately, healing for Jung meant reconciling all the various opposites in our natures and achieving an alchemical transmutation of our base metals into gold, a process he described as 'individuation'. The Chinese philosophy of Taoism with its yin-yang principle of opposites gave him a ready blueprint, and in the coming to terms of the good and evil in ourselves he turned to early Christian Gnosticism.
His idea of the animus and animi - the male and female natures we all possess - is largely derivative of Kundalini yoga and Shivaite Hinduism, and for the completion of the journey he borrowed heavily from Tibetan Buddhism.
Jung was convinced the working of the universe was not entirely random, and he coined a term for it - synchronicity.
Jung argues for a reevaluation of the symbolism of Alchemy as being intimately related to the psychoanalytical process. Using a cycle of dreams of one of his patients he shows how the symbols used by the Alchemists occur in the psyche as part of the reservoir of mythological images drawn upon by the individual in their dream states. Jung draws an analogy between the Great Work of the Alchemists and the process of reintegration and individuation of the psyche in the modern psychiatric patient.
In drawing these parallels Jung reinforces the universal nature of his theory of the archetype and makes an impassioned argument for the importance of spirituality in the psychic health of the modern man.
Jung's use of Kabbalistic symbols and ideas as well as his personal Kabbalistic vision are critically examined. It is argued that as great as Jung's acknowledged affinity is to the Kabbalah, his unacknowledged relationship was even greater. Jung has been accused of being a contemporary Gnostic. However, the interpretations which Jung places on Gnosticism and the texts which Jung refers to on alchemy, were profoundly Kabbalistic, so much so that one would be more justified in calling the Jung of the 'Mysterium Coniunctionis' and other late works, a Kabbalist in contemporary guise.
The three major concept that Jung has been recognised for introducing; collective unconscious, syncronicity and archetypes are powerful modern validations of centuries of western occult philosophy. And as such the work of C. J. Jung greatly contributed to the rise in the interest, and increased respect for esoteric subjects and practices in the second half of the 20th century.
You'll find more detailed studies of these and related topics in the other pages of this section of the site. You'll also find my own spin, mash-ups, observations and half-arsed 'out on a limb' ideas; I'm sure you'll be able to tell the difference.
(Note to Super-ego: please, pretty please, can we have a copy of Jung's 'Red Book' for our birthday.)