Liber Novus (The Red Book) by C. G. Jung

Jung wrote that it was a difficult task to differentiate the personal and collective psyche. One of the factors one came up against was the persona—one’s “mask” or “role.” This represented the segment of the collective psyche that one mistakenly regarded as individual. When one analyzed this, the personality dissolved into the collective psyche, wh

But how can I attain the knowledge of the heart? You can attain this knowledge only by living your life to the full. You live your life fully if you also live what you have never yet lived, but have left for others to live or to think.

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

Joy at the smallest things comes to you only when you have accepted death. But if you look out greedily for all that you could still live, then nothing is great enough for your pleasure, and the smallest things that continue to surround you are no longer a joy. Therefore I behold death, since it teaches me how to live.

Jung described his technique for inducing such spontaneous fantasies: “The training consists first of all in systematic exercises for eliminating critical attention, thus producing a vacuum in consciousness.”

The years... when I pursued the inner images, were the most important time of my life. Everything else is to be derived from this. It began at that time, and the later details hardly matter anymore. My

In October of the same year, Jung presented two talks to the Psychological Club. The first was titled “Adaptation.” This took two forms: adaptation to outer and inner conditions. The “inner” was understood to designate the unconscious. Adaptation to the “inner” led to the demand for individuation, which was contrary to adaptation to others. Answeri

My friends, it is wise to nourish the soul, otherwise you will breed dragons and devils in your heart.44

With his seminars on Kundalini Yoga in 1932, Jung commenced a comparative study of esoteric practices, focusing on the spiritual exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, Patanjali’s Yoga sutras, Buddhist meditational practices, and medieval alchemy, which he presented in an extensive series of lectures at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH).243