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Well 90% of the time I end up in a random conversation with someone about Freud.. about all they have to say is that he was obsessed with sex... Seems to me, if you're going to be obsessed with something.. at least sex is on the more fun side.. but I mean that's what he's reduced down to for so many people today.
Just knowing a little of the origins of the Red Book.. it seemed like this could add to the problem of how Jung is understood..
It's also worth noting that Jung had tensions with his handlers.. with how he was being packaged.
On a person level.. I'm excited about the Red book cause... it just seems like.. "oh my gosh, what could we find in here" sorta thing.. like this is that particular moment in Jung's history that..
In term's of what's good for Jungian Psychology.... I think there's two things.. One is that you really want to facilitate study of the subject matter.. so.. on that level.. clearly, having the Red Book out.. is a good thing. The second thing, I think, is finding a way to communicate to our times.
Communicating to our times is like.. I think people need to understand it in a way that isn't some far out new-age -e thing.. They need to feel the solidity of the ideas.. On the other hand.. I don't know how many times I find myself in these situations where.. you know like out side of some working class bar.. people musing on so many things that have that kind of new-age-e quality comes up.. and the conversation expresses a kind of hunger that people have.. that Jungian psychology speaks to.. so I think this has to be a part of it as well.
I think the question of timing is interesting to.. It still feels like just a dawning thing.. this idea that human health should be thought of holistically.. this way that we see a certain amount of new-age-e ness creeping into treatment.. the dream that medicine might one day be more geared to the individual.. with advanced in our genetic understanding.. etc.. that one thinks the time for this sorta thing ain't too bad.
And finally.. I don't think one should worry too much about the critics. In the end, I don't know how much say they really have.. I think its much more about how the Jungian community communicates its self.. its about our journey.. and hell.. its not a bad thing to embrace one's critics.. especially if they have some kind of truth going on.. but.. most of the critics I encounter.. there truth has more to do with how badly stuff gets communicated then the stuff its self
those that fear this probably haven't come to terms with their own
inflation surrounding the "figure of Jung" and they fear that they
themselves will not be able to maintain a false projection...
That being said, it does seem that as a collective audience, we might
need some guidance through the pages...(We will see, my copy due to
arrive next week.)
Imaginal, that the content does not get handled with a "nothing but"
attitude, as many currently dismiss dreams as "nothing but a dream."
But yeah.. reading a thing like that.. if you don't already have a framework for understanding this stuff.. well without reading it.. I'd imagine it would be difficult.. to then further it and read it with these sorts of modern prejudices... Mmmhmmm...
So I suppose the best that can be done is to participate in the surrounding conversations?
fact that the "fear" might be misplaced...but then again, any approach
to the numinous tends to be colored with a hint at least of fear...so
that leads to the idea that perhaps the fer is misplaced...fear the
numinous, not Jung's reputation.
Most people's relationship to the numinous, it seems to me, has many layers of intermediation to the extent to which there is very little consciousness of it at all.. to the extent that it all sounds like just a superstition.. and so I would tend to think that an encounter with the red book would be like.. they would feel no connection between it and there own layers of protections.. but clearly they would meet it with the same sorta attitudes they meet with it within them selves..
We have a different god.. a different set of ideas we are devoting our selves to.. we modern world beings.. from which flows our sense of what to value. To journey to this something else.. this numinous thing.. to our values.. what madness! Never mind going on a journey deep enough to find new values!
In this sense I don't feel like the numinous is really the feared thing so much as the wrath of the new god.. and then perhaps all numinous stuff is to be interpreted this way.
It's a little like.. the difference between temporal based fears of the numinous versus eternal fears of the numinous.. that is that the real numinous is.. this might sound crazy to say.. but when you look at the culture we give very young children.. we warp some of the archetypes in soft fuzzy outfits.. as if we are telling our kids something about this worlds relationship to the world they are coming to us from. "Look what we've figured out." The creators of this culture being like the ambassadors of the temporal world to the eternal..
And then.. of course.. they get into college.. and they question the carrot.. and the stronger among them perhaps harden to the stick? Or perhaps that's just what rock'n roll is about?
Err... but that's not a fear relationship to the numinous.. that's more just a soul urning.. the very sorta thing that if followed leads to places where numinous encounters are less threatening. It's the identification to the Matrix sorta thing.. and the taking up of Darth-Vader-Hood.. that's the issue. Which of course the new god has been very skillful at making unconscious.
I am greeted by the strange question of this social web.. what does it mean to our children that they can encounter the culture created by other ages ambassadors? Will we eventually come to a point where in.. all directions might be fed? Jesus, I never thought about that... The future of socialization...
Well I don't know where I am at this point in the train of thought.. I guess it all seems sorta complicated?
My experience has been anywhere fron slight anxiety to outright dread,
depending on the level of engagement...it goes back to that oft
repeated qoute of Jung's that " the experience of the Self is always a
defeat for the ego."
On numinous experiences and the ego: I think I sorta come at it from the opposite direction or something. Most of the time I'm down right afraid to embrace my ego.. and that's something I think I need to work on. And I guess, thinking about it now, the less I embrace my ego, the sorta easier it is to... I'm not sure the word.. but for some things ego can be like extra baggage that encumbers your journey.
Most of the time my highest goal is something numinous. Like trying to break through.
That's not to say numinous experience doesn't shake my foundations.. or like.. doesn't have a lot of awe associated with it... or that I don't freak out and question my sanity.. But I think if you're experience with it is pro-active.. then.. as Campbell said.. the difference between a psychotic and a mystic is the mystic swims in the water the psychotic is stuck in.
The then I read this recent blog post by Franklin McMahon http://www.franklinmcmahon.com/embrace-your-ego... on the importance of embracing your ego... for business purposes.. and.. while I think I disagree with much.. I did start to wonder "well, what if I do embrace my ego?" Should I treat it like an archetype where I recognize but am careful not to identify with it? Or should I go so far as to identify with it.. but just try and stay mindful that it's not the whole of the story?
LOL, yeah.. so the Ego is what scares me!
complex of psychic energy which if we truly begin to look at, in it's
border areas has a great deal of vauge and blurred extention.
The rock star is a persona. The ego is the bearer of awareness, which
is a huge responsibity...
then it is activating the Hero, which often gets associated with the
egos task.