THE CONTEMPLATIVE WORK OF C. G. JUNG HOW HE DISCOVERED HIS SOUL DURING A TIME OF PERSONAL AND COLLECTIVE

UPHEAVAL

CHAOS

CONSIDER WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE WORLD

• Globalization

• Nationalism

• Violence motivated by religion

• Shifting alliances among major powers

“WHEN WE LOOK BACK TO THE TIME BEFORE 1914, WE FIND OURSELVES LIVING IN A WORLD OF EVENTS WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN INCONCEIVABLE BEFORE THE WAR.”

C. G. Jung, “Wotan,” 1936.

I OFTEN GO ON BITTER NIGHTS TO WOTAN'S OAK IN THE QUIET GLADE WITH DARK POWERS TO WEAVE A UNION - THE RUNIC LETTER THE MOON MAKES WITH ITS MAGIC SPELL AND ALL WHO ARE FULL OF IMPUDENCE DURING THE DAY ARE MADE SMALL BY THE MAGIC FORMULA!

Poem by Adolf Hitler, written in 1915 while Hitler was serving

in the German Army on the Western Front.

1913

“The world and society in 1913 looked like this: life is completely confined and

shackled. A kind of economic fatalism prevails; each individual, whether he

resists it or not, is assigned a specific role and with it his interests and his

character. The church is regarded as a ‘redemption factory’ of little importance,

literature as a safety valve . . . The most burning question day and night is: is

there any where a force that is strong enough to put an end to this state of

affairs? And if not, how can one escape it?” Hugo Ball

JUNG’S PRACTICE OF ACTIVE IMAGINATION

1. Turn off ego consciousness in order to evoke a fantasy in the waking state.

Sit and wait for the images or voices to appear.

2. Enter into the fantasy as a drama. Dialogue with the inner figures.

3. Faithfully and accurately record the drama without interpretation. Keep a

Journal.

4. Amplify the images. Paint or draw the images.

5. Seek to discern the objective content of the fantasy. Explore cross-cultural

and mythological comparisons of the images.

AN EXAMPLE FROM HIS DIALOGUES

• The Anchorite in the Desert

THEME OF RED BOOK

• Spirit of the Times • Spirit of the Depths

LIVING STABILITY WHEN THE WORLD IS IN CHAOS JUNG’S CONTEMPLATIVE WORK ALLOWS HIM TO:

• Regain his soul

• Overcome the contemporary malaise of spiritual isolation

• Finding a new God-image

• Developing a new world view

LIVING STABILITY WHEN THE WORLD IS IN CHAOS JUNG’S CONTEMPLATIVE WORK REMINDS US TO:

• Live our myth (central organizing truth): transmission of the wisdom of Jesus as

an expression of Sophia Perennis

• Stay with our contemplative practice: Rule of Life

• Experiment

• Commitment

• Outer work is as important as inner work.