Georgia O’Keeffe, “Red Poppy”
Chapter 1 of The Red Book bears the title Refinding the Soul. “I have shaken the dust of all the lands from my feet, and I have come to you, I am with you,” says Jung, addressing his soul. He says he has achieved every earthy dream he can think of and yet, at the age of 40, he feels unbearable inner longing. Now he wishes to ascend to solitude and reconnect with the soul he thought he had known because it had been the object of his scientific pursuits. He realizes that “my soul cannot be the object of my judgement and knowledge” because it is “a living and self-existing being” which cannot be judged and whose circumference cannot be grasped.
He also ponders how to reach the place of the soul. The most striking words seem to be these: “The one thing I have learned is that one must live this life.” That resonated with me strongly, and I saw a parallel with what Ram Dass said in one of his talks. He said that in order to become nobody, which is the goal of spiritual pursuits, one must first become somebody. I understand it as establishing yourself in the ways of this world – through the usual activities called upon us by “the spirit of our times” (see part 1 to read more about this). Jung strongly emphasizes that there is no other way to spirituality but this, i.e. the engagement with the world. The divine can be reached only through this life, and all other ways are “false paths.”
But after becoming somebody the next step is to “turn away from outer things.” There is emptiness in “a blind desire for the hollow things of the world.” The soul lies within while the outer world can be distracting. Here Jung draws a distinction between the world and the images. He says that the images constitute the wealth of the soul. A person poor in the material sense but who possesses the image of the world through their rich, imaginative and soulful inner life, in fact “possesses half of the world.” Conversely, “he who possesses the world but not its image possesses only half the world, since his soul is poor and has nothing.” Images are soul nourishment, says Jung. They are not less real than worldly objects.
The image of the white dove opens this chapter as the symbol of the soul. The background is green with lush red flowers at the bottom to juxtapose the sensual with the spiritual aspect.
Reading The Red Book – part 10
Reading The Red Book – part 11
Reading The Red Book – part 12
Reading The Red Book – part 13
Reading The Red Book – part 14
Reading The Red Book – part 15
Reading The Red Book – part 16
Reading The Red Book – part 17
Reading The Red Book – part 18
Reading The Red Book – part 19
Reading The Red Book – part 20
Reading The Red Book – part 21
Reading The Red Book – part 22
Reading The Red Book – part 23
Reading The Red Book – part 24
Reading The Red Book – part 25
Reading The Red Book – part 26
Reading The Red Book – part 27
Reading The Red Book – part 28
Reading The Red Book – part 29
Reading The Red Book – part 30
Reading The Red Book – part 31
Reading The Red Book – part 32
Reading The Red Book – part 33
Reading The Red Book – part 34
Reading The Red Book – part 35
Reading The Red Book – part 36
Reading The Red Book – part 37
Reading The Red Book – part 38
Reading The Red Book – part 39
Reading The Red Book – part 40
symbolreader 
Hi Monika,
As someone with a copy of the Red Book, alas without many illustrations in it, who has been wary to actually dig in, I find your posts very helpful. Also, your blog is the third I read today containing soul nourishment, so important for this impending eclipse in Cancer. May we all be rich inwardly and at peaceful union with our soul’s yearnings for actualization.
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Dear Linda, you are right about the connection to the eclipse. It is an intensive time, isn’t it? We’ve got an extreme heatwave in Europe right now – up to 40 degrees in the sun (104 Fahrenheit)! It is insane and for sure has a symbolic significance. I am glad we can go through The Red Book together. I find Sanford L. Drob’s guide really helpful.
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Wow, you are working fast! I must take a time to read your wonderful (two) posts 😁🙃🙏❤
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Reminds one of Gurdjieff.
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Thank you for sharing a great post!
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Thank you.
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‘Images are soul nourishment, says Jung’…how very true this is. I simply love the images you share on your site, Monika, and thank you for helping us to draw soul nourishment from the Red Book.
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Thank you again, Anne. I’m deeply grateful.
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What Jung says is precisely what Krishna says in the Gita, an avatar and a great psychologist philosopher interestingly say the same thing.
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What an interesting observation, Indrajit. It is definitely worth investigating. Thank you.
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Pingback: Reading The Red Book (2) – lampmagician
thank you, dear Monika, for the No 2 🙂 and please don’t think that I need one week to read your wonderful thoughts, as I’m working the five days of the week eleven hours a day and therefore, my brain actually begins to work in the weekend 😛 With sincerely love ❤
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No worries – I know what you mean. I hope at some point you can get yourself out of that daily “meatgrinder”
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Hah! meatgrinder, “Fleischwolf” 😀 something new have learned. Thank you my wonderful Lady. You have a wide and beautiful third eye to see the behind. That’s it, thank you ❤ ❤
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