Liber Novus (The Red Book) by C. G. Jung
“To the superficial observer, it will appear like madness."
from The Red Book (Jung) by Carl Gustav Jung
Liber Novus (The Red Book) by C. G. Jung
“To the superficial observer, it will appear like madness."
from The Red Book (Jung) by Carl Gustav Jung
Who succeeded in crossing the borders of this realm with good grounds, pure conscience, and obeying the law of love? Who among the living is Christ and journeys to Hell in living flesh? Who is it that expands the realm of Christ with Hell? Who is it that is full of drunkenness while sober? Who is it that descended from being one into being two? Who
... See moreMadness is a special form of the spirit and clings to all teachings and philosophies, but even more to daily life, since life itself is full of craziness and at bottom utterly illogical. Man strives toward reason only so that he can make rules for himself. Life itself has no rules. That is its mystery and its unknown law. What you call knowledge is
... See moreBut if you try to reach the station called Insight before you pass through the town called Emotion, you never reach your destination.
Just as Christ tormented the flesh through the spirit, the God of this time will torment the spirit through the flesh. For our spirit has become an impertinent whore, a slave to words created by men and no longer the divine word itself.204
Just as Christ said that he did not come to make peace but brought the sword,207 so he in whom Christ becomes complete will not give himself peace, but a sword. He will rebel against himself and one will be turned against the other in him. He will also hate that which he loves in himself. He will be castigated in himself, mocked, and given over to
... See moreTherefore he who strives for the highest finds the deepest.
Your life needs the dark.
Jung went so far as to suggest that his patients prepare their own Red Books. Morgan recalled him saying: I should advise you to put it all down as beautifully as you can—in some beautifully bound book. It will seem as if you were making the visions banal—but then you need to do that—then you are freed from the power of them. If you do that with th
... See moreAt the outset of Liber Novus, Jung experiences a crisis of language. The spirit of the depths, who immediately challenges Jung’s use of language along with the spirit of the time, informs Jung that on the terrain of his soul his achieved language will no longer serve. His own powers of knowing and speaking can no longer account for why he utters wh
... See more