Carl Jung

If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.

So long as religion is only faith and outward form, and the religious function is not experienced in our own souls, nothing of any importance has happened.

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.

When God became man all darkness and evil were carefully kept outside.

It is good if evil is sensibly covered up, but to act unconsciously is evil.

God can be loved but must be feared.

Divine Duality and Human Perception

Carl Jung explores the complex nature of Yahweh in the Book of Job, portraying a deity embodying both benevolence and malevolence. This duality challenges human understanding and faith, as modern individuals struggle to reconcile these extremes. Jung states, 'Such a condition is only conceivable either when no reflecting consciousness is present at all, or when the capacity for reflection is very feeble and a more or less adventitious phenomenon.' This dual nature implies an amoral existence, making it difficult for humans to comprehend divine justice and suffering.

Job's Moral Superiority and Rationality

Jung highlights Job's insistence on his innocence and his quest for a fair trial before Yahweh, despite acknowledging divine power. This underscores the ethical conundrum presented by divine actions. Job's steadfastness and moral integrity force Yahweh to confront his own nature, revealing Job's superior knowledge. Jung notes, 'Without Yahweh's knowledge and contrary to his intentions, the tormented though guiltless Job had secretly been lifted up to a superior knowledge of God which God himself did not possess.'

The Role of Sophia in Divine Transformation

Jung discusses the importance of Sophia (Wisdom) in Yahweh's transformation. Her presence brings balance, enabling Yahweh's decision to incarnate as a way to reconcile with humanity. 'Sophia steps in. She reinforces the much-needed self-reflection and thus makes possible Yahweh’s decision to become man.' This intervention signifies the importance of wisdom in achieving completeness and aligning divine actions with moral and ethical standards.

Christ’s Dual Nature and Predestination

Jung delves into the paradoxical nature of Christ, emphasizing his profound love for humanity juxtaposed with a predestinarian outlook that limits his message to the elect. This duality highlights the tension between universal salvation and selective election. Jung states, 'If one knows that one has been singled out by divine choice and intention from the beginning of the world, then one feels lifted beyond the transitoriness and meaninglessness of ordinary human existence.'

The Necessity of Embracing the Dark Side

Jung argues that individuals must acknowledge and integrate their inner darkness to achieve wholeness. He emphasizes that true wisdom, akin to that sought by Job, is crucial for this transformation. Recognizing and confronting one's darker aspects allows the synthesis of opposites, leading to a complete and balanced self. 'For the problem is not only moral: we also need the Wisdom that Job was seeking.'

Embrace Dualities in Life

Rather than seeing life’s challenges as purely negative, consider them as part of a complex whole, embodying both good and bad. This perspective can help one reconcile with seemingly unjust or contradictory experiences.

Seek Understanding, Not Just Resolution

Instead of seeking to resolve all contradictions or injustices, strive to understand their deeper meanings and implications. This might involve accepting that some questions may remain unexplained but can still contribute to personal growth.

Engage with Inner Darkness

Consciously acknowledge and integrate your darker aspects to achieve psychological and spiritual balance. This helps in mitigating vulnerabilities and strengthening moral resilience.

Value Relationships and Connections

Cultivate relationships and interconnectedness (Eros) to balance goal-oriented pursuits. Relationships provide essential emotional grounding and ethical context, echoing the relational void Yahweh experienced in the Book of Job.

Yahweh is not split but is an antinomy—a totality of inner opposites.

He is too unconscious to be moral. Morality presupposes consciousness.

Without Yahweh's knowledge and contrary to his intentions, the tormented though guiltless Job had secretly been lifted up to a superior knowledge of God which God himself did not possess.

Such a condition is only conceivable either when no reflecting consciousness is present at all, or when the capacity for reflection is very feeble and a more or less adventitious phenomenon.

If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him? ... He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.

The violence is meant to penetrate to a man’s vitals, and he to succumb to its action.

Yahweh is a phenomenon and, as Job says, 'not a man.

Yahweh’s divided attitude, which on the one hand tramples on human life and happiness without regard, and on the other hand must have man for a partner, puts the latter in an impossible position.

Yahweh has no Eros, no relationship to man, but only to a purpose man must help him fulfil.

Sophia steps in. She reinforces the much-needed self-reflection and thus makes possible Yahweh’s decision to become man.

Myth is not fiction: it consists of facts that are continually repeated and can be observed over and over again.

God wants to become man.

Build Your Sacred Space

Create a physical space in your home dedicated to inner work—a corner or room free from technology and external distractions. Jung's Bollingen Tower served this purpose: 'At Bollingen I am in the midst of my true life, I am most deeply myself.' Include objects of personal significance, candles, or artwork you've created. Use this space exclusively for meditation, journaling, or creative expression, allowing it to become a container for your psychological work.

Engage in Symbolic Dialogue with Conflicts

When facing inner conflicts or difficult decisions, personify the opposing forces and facilitate a dialogue between them. Jung advised: 'Take your mental difficulties in which you are stuck as an image and speak to this image.' Write out both sides of the conversation, allowing each voice to express itself fully without judgment. This technique transforms abstract problems into concrete interactions, often revealing unexpected solutions or compromises.

Everything in the unconscious seeks outward manifestation, and the personality too desires to evolve out of its unconscious conditions and to experience itself as a whole.

In the end, the only events in my life worth telling are those when the imperishable world irrupted into this transitory one.

This possession of a secret had a very powerful formative influence on my character; I consider it the essential factor of my boyhood.

Somewhere deep in the background I always knew that I was two persons.

At bottom we discover nothing new and unknown in the mentally ill; rather, we encounter the substratum of our own natures.

Analysis is a dialogue demanding two partners... The doctor has something to say, but so has the patient.

Only if the doctor knows how to cope with himself and his own problems will he be able to teach the patient to do the same.

Through the study of these collective transformation processes and through understanding of alchemical symbolism I arrived at the central concept of my psychology: the process of individuation.

It often seems as if there were an impersonal karma within a family, which is passed on from parents to children.

The longing for light is the longing for consciousness.

Death appears as a joyful event... In light of eternity, it is a wedding, a mysterium coniunctionis.

The meaning of my existence is that life has addressed a question to me... I must communicate my answer.

No science will ever replace myth, and a myth cannot be made out of any science.

Just as all energy proceeds from opposition, so the psyche too possesses its inner polarity.

There are higher things than the ego's will, and to these one must bow.

Thoughts were like animals in the forest... you would not think that you had made those people.

The mandala represents this monad... it is the path to individuation.

What we are to our inward vision... can only be expressed by way of myth.

Inner peace depends upon whether or not the historical family inherent in the individual can be harmonized with ephemeral conditions.

Since my experience in the baptistery in Ravenna, I know with certainty that something interior can seem to be exterior, and something exterior can appear to be interior.

The Unconscious as Autonomous Reality

Jung challenges the conventional view of the unconscious as merely repressed content, presenting it instead as an autonomous realm with its own agency and wisdom. Through his encounters with figures like Philemon—an inner guide who taught him that 'thoughts were like animals in the forest'—Jung discovered that psychic contents exist independently of conscious will. This insight revolutionizes our understanding of mental life: we are not sole authors of our thoughts but participants in a larger psychic ecosystem. Jung's experience of automatic writing producing the Septem Sermones ad Mortuos demonstrates how the unconscious can overwhelm consciousness with its own creative force. The practical implication is profound: psychological health requires establishing a dialogue with these autonomous forces rather than suppressing them, transforming the unconscious from adversary to ally in the journey toward wholeness.

The Duality of Personality: No. 1 and No. 2

Jung introduces a revolutionary framework for understanding the self through his concept of two distinct personalities within each individual. Personality No. 1 represents the ego-consciousness bound by time, society, and rational thought—the everyday self that navigates practical life. In contrast, Personality No. 2 embodies the timeless, archetypal dimension connected to nature, divinity, and the collective unconscious. Jung writes, 'Somewhere deep in the background I always knew that I was two persons.' This duality manifests throughout life as an ongoing tension between social adaptation and authentic self-expression. Jung's childhood experience of feeling like an ancient man sitting on a stone while simultaneously being a schoolboy exemplifies this split. Rather than viewing this division as pathological, Jung frames it as essential to psychological wholeness—the integration of both personalities through individuation becomes the path to self-realization.

God as Paradox: The Integration of Light and Shadow

Jung's most contrarian insight concerns the nature of divinity itself—God is not purely benevolent but encompasses both creation and destruction, grace and terror. His childhood vision of God defiling Basel Cathedral revealed that 'God could be something terrible,' challenging conventional religious dogma. This paradoxical understanding extends to the human psyche: wholeness requires integrating not just our light but our shadow aspects. Jung critiques traditional Christianity for splitting off evil into a separate principle (Satan), arguing instead that psychological maturity demands confronting the totality of existence. His interpretation of Job's story illustrates this: God contains both loving and destructive aspects that humans must reconcile within themselves. This framework transforms spirituality from blind faith to conscious engagement with life's fundamental paradoxes.

Dreams as Compensatory Wisdom

Rejecting Freud's view of dreams as disguised wish-fulfillments, Jung presents dreams as natural compensatory mechanisms that balance conscious attitudes. Dreams don't deceive but rather 'express something as best they can,' offering perspectives that consciousness overlooks or represses. Jung's pivotal dream of descending through historical layers of a house—from modern rooms to prehistoric caves—revealed the collective unconscious beneath personal experience. This dream became the foundation for his theory of archetypes: universal patterns inherited not through culture but through the psyche itself. By treating dreams as collaborative partners rather than problems to solve, individuals access wisdom beyond their conscious limitations. Jung's systematic recording of his dreams, including the prophetic visions before World War I, demonstrates how dream work becomes a practical tool for navigating life's challenges.

Individuation Through Sacred Solitude

Jung's creation of Bollingen Tower exemplifies his radical approach to self-realization: the necessity of sacred space removed from collective pressures. He built this retreat without electricity or modern conveniences, creating a physical manifestation of his inner world where he could live 'in modest harmony with nature.' This withdrawal wasn't escapism but essential work—carving stones, painting mandalas, and engaging in rituals that connected him to ancestral wisdom. Jung argues that individuation requires periods of deliberate isolation from society's 'isms' and collective identities that 'interfere with the fulfillment of this task.' His childhood secret of the manikin hidden in the attic prefigured this insight: psychological development demands inviolable private space where the true self can emerge without external validation or judgment.

Synchronicity: The Meaningful Order of Reality

Jung's concept of synchronicity challenges the mechanistic worldview by proposing that psyche and matter are connected through meaning rather than causality. His experiments with the I Ching and observations of meaningful coincidences—like the scarab beetle appearing during a patient's dream analysis—suggest reality operates on principles beyond linear cause-and-effect. Jung writes about 'acausal parallelism' where inner psychological states align with outer events in ways that defy probability. This isn't magical thinking but recognition of a deeper ordering principle in nature. The practical significance is transformative: by attending to synchronicities, individuals can navigate life through meaning rather than force, recognizing guidance in seemingly random events. Jung's own life exemplified this, from his prophetic dreams to the uncanny timing of his encounters with key figures like Freud and Wilhelm.

The Necessity of Myth for Psychological Health

Jung's most profound contribution may be his restoration of myth as essential to human flourishing, not primitive superstition to be outgrown. He declares, 'No science will ever replace myth, and a myth cannot be made out of any science.' Myths provide what rationality cannot: a living connection to the archetypal dimensions of existence that give life meaning. Jung's own life became his personal myth—a story of encountering and integrating unconscious forces rather than a mere sequence of events. This perspective revolutionizes how we understand mental health: neurosis often stems from 'mythlessness,' the absence of a meaningful narrative framework. By reconnecting with mythic thinking through dreams, active imagination, and symbolic life, individuals rediscover their place in a larger cosmic story. Jung's autobiography itself demonstrates this principle—presenting his life as myth rather than history.

Practice Active Imagination Daily

Set aside 20 minutes each day to engage with unconscious contents through Jung's technique of active imagination. Sit quietly, allow an image or figure to arise spontaneously, then interact with it through inner dialogue or artistic expression. Jung used this method to communicate with Philemon and other inner figures, leading to profound insights. Record these encounters in a dedicated journal, treating them as real experiences rather than mere fantasies.

Create Your Personal Mandala Practice

Draw or paint mandalas regularly to track your psychological state and progress toward wholeness. Jung discovered that creating mandalas helped him understand his inner transformations: 'I sketched every morning in a notebook a small circular drawing... which seemed to correspond to my inner situation at the time.' Use simple materials—colored pencils and paper—focusing on spontaneous expression rather than artistic skill. Review your mandalas monthly to observe patterns and changes.

Establish a Dream Recording Ritual

Keep a dream journal beside your bed and write down dreams immediately upon waking, before moving or speaking. Jung emphasized capturing even fragments: 'I took great care to try to understand every single image, every item of my psychic inventory.' Include the date, emotional tone, and any associations that arise. Review dreams weekly, looking for recurring symbols or themes that might offer guidance for current life situations.

When God became man all darkness and evil were carefully kept outside.

It is good if evil is sensibly covered up, but to act unconsciously is evil.

God can be loved but must be feared.

Yahweh is not split but is an antinomy—a totality of inner opposites.

He is too unconscious to be moral. Morality presupposes consciousness.

Without Yahweh's knowledge and contrary to his intentions, the tormented though guiltless Job had secretly been lifted up to a superior knowledge of God which God himself did not possess.

Such a condition is only conceivable either when no reflecting consciousness is present at all, or when the capacity for reflection is very feeble and a more or less adventitious phenomenon.

If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him? ... He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.

The violence is meant to penetrate to a man’s vitals, and he to succumb to its action.

Yahweh is a phenomenon and, as Job says, 'not a man.

Yahweh’s divided attitude, which on the one hand tramples on human life and happiness without regard, and on the other hand must have man for a partner, puts the latter in an impossible position.

Yahweh has no Eros, no relationship to man, but only to a purpose man must help him fulfil.

Sophia steps in. She reinforces the much-needed self-reflection and thus makes possible Yahweh’s decision to become man.

Myth is not fiction: it consists of facts that are continually repeated and can be observed over and over again.

God wants to become man.

Everything in the unconscious seeks outward manifestation, and the personality too desires to evolve out of its unconscious conditions and to experience itself as a whole.

In the end, the only events in my life worth telling are those when the imperishable world irrupted into this transitory one.

This possession of a secret had a very powerful formative influence on my character; I consider it the essential factor of my boyhood.

Somewhere deep in the background I always knew that I was two persons.

At bottom we discover nothing new and unknown in the mentally ill; rather, we encounter the substratum of our own natures.

Analysis is a dialogue demanding two partners... The doctor has something to say, but so has the patient.

Only if the doctor knows how to cope with himself and his own problems will he be able to teach the patient to do the same.

Through the study of these collective transformation processes and through understanding of alchemical symbolism I arrived at the central concept of my psychology: the process of individuation.

It often seems as if there were an impersonal karma within a family, which is passed on from parents to children.

The longing for light is the longing for consciousness.

Death appears as a joyful event... In light of eternity, it is a wedding, a mysterium coniunctionis.

The meaning of my existence is that life has addressed a question to me... I must communicate my answer.

No science will ever replace myth, and a myth cannot be made out of any science.

Just as all energy proceeds from opposition, so the psyche too possesses its inner polarity.

There are higher things than the ego's will, and to these one must bow.

Thoughts were like animals in the forest... you would not think that you had made those people.

The mandala represents this monad... it is the path to individuation.

What we are to our inward vision... can only be expressed by way of myth.

Inner peace depends upon whether or not the historical family inherent in the individual can be harmonized with ephemeral conditions.

Since my experience in the baptistery in Ravenna, I know with certainty that something interior can seem to be exterior, and something exterior can appear to be interior.

As a general rule, the unconscious aspect of any event is revealed to us in dreams, where it appears not as a rational thought but as a symbolic image.

Thus a word or an image is symbolic when it implies something more than its obvious and immediate meaning.