Love “bears all things” and “endures all things.” (1Cor.,13:7)
C.G.Jung, ” a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of analytical psychology, (Google AI) goes on to relate, These words say all there is to be said; nothing can be added to them. For we are in the deepest sense victims and the instruments of cosmogonic “Love”.
Cosmogonic , again as defined by Google AI. The branch of science that deals with the origin of the universe, especially the solar system.
This month I opened a copy of Memories, Dreams, Reflections, by C.G. Jung, recorded and edited by Aneila Jaffe. My copy is a Vintage Books paperback translated from the German by Richard and Clara Winston and revised in April 1989. The original was published, I believe, in 1961 by Random House.
According to the Introduction, this book had its inception in the summer of 1956 as a biography of Carl Gustav Jung. He was reading unpublished chapters as late as January 1959. He let Aneila Jaffe know that his chapter, On Life after Death, (Jung) Something within me has been touched. That intrigued me. Those of you that have followed me here over the past few years know that I am open in my faith and I believe in life after physical death. Our consciousness is, well,.. still conscious! So I eagerly read this book kindly given to me by my daughter. In this book I found Dr. Jung, a world renowned psychiatrist, sharing his reflections of a spiritual nature. Needless to say I couldn’t resist. This paperback also contains a copy of a letter from Freud to Jung in the early 1900’s. Freud compliments his young friend on his courage to empirically publish what Freud labels “inclinations impelling you, (Jung) toward a study of the occult.” This excerpt is found on page 363.
Before I continue, let me explain that I have not finished reading Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. The Reflections by Jung is a much faster read for me. Have you ever ridden in a car as a passenger and noticed the scenery passing by? The landscape farther away from your point of view goes by slowly, especially compared to the scenery closest to you, which passes by at a quicker pace. Well, reading both Jung and Dostoevsky at the same time is like that passing scenery. Dr.Jung’s written scenery is close and passes by me fast while The Brothers Karamazov‘s pages require a slower, steadier pace.
As I mentioned earlier Jung passed away in 1961. The following is copied from page 326, and I share it here as I resonate with his words today, sixty five years after he shared this with Aniela Jaffe.
Our age has shifted all emphasis to the here and now, and this brought about daemonization of man and his world. ( Per Google AI daemonization definition: In Jungian psychology it doesn’t refer to evil but to the process of engaging with the daimon, a powerful, often unconscious inner force that represents one’s individual destiny or life purpose.) The phenomenon of dictators and all the misery they have wrought springs from the fact that man has been robbed of transcendence by the shortsightedness of the super-intellectuals. Like them, he has fallen victim to the unconsciousness. But man’s task is the exact opposite: to become conscious of the contents that press upwards from the unconscious. Neither should he persist in his unconsciousness, nor remain identical with the unconscious elements of his being, thus evading his destiny, which is to create more and more consciousness. As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being. It may even be assumed that just as the unconscious affects us, so the increase in our consciousness affects the unconscious.
There you have it! The goal, achieve self realization. Jung shares so much more in Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Too much to highlight here. Next month I will share his thoughts about evil, shadows and the Christian myths as he puts it.
As I reflect this month at my lighthouse, Jung’s explanation of the power of dictators on so many, evidenced by people losing consciousness and becoming in a sense, unconscious. That brings the image of zombies into my over-active imagination. But zombies in literature appear to reflect no emotion, and as Jung explains in detail, evil is just in the shadow of good. And evil, has technology today that fires the murderous bullets and flies the pilot-less missiles. Dark shadows with key board fingers spreading the hateful compost of negative foul smelling rhetoric faster and more deadly than evil had available to use in the 1940’s. Awful to say, but think how the holocaust could be so easily reborn by the millions of the unconscious (zombie) audiences disseminating hate on social media, today. As we celebrate driver-less cars, pilot-less drones, an assault rifle that can kill innocents today at a rate that took a 100 gunmen to kill during WWII, we can thank our feckless leaders. Why? Under their lack of leadership our country has produced more guns than their are people living here, in the U.S.A.!
Hate to say it but evil never had it so good. So I ask myself, wake up, stand up, and raise my arms not to hurt but to hug evil away! I end with a final quote attributed to Carl Jung. Where love rules, there is no will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.
Thank you for reading.
Be at peace and joy!
Mark