He sees the tree of life.
He sees the tree of life, whose roots reach into Hell and whose top touches Heaven. He also no longer knows differences: Who is right? What is holy? What is genuine? What is good? What is correct? He knows only one difference: the difference between below and above. For he sees that the tree of life grows from below to above, and that it has its crown at the top, clearly differentiated from the roots. To him this is unquestionable. Hence he knows the way to salvation.
To unlearn all distinctions save that concerning direction is part of your salvation. Hence you free yourself from the old curse of the knowledge of good and evil. Because you separated good from evil according to your best appraisal and aspired only to the good and denied the evil that you committed nevertheless and ailed to accept, your roots no longer suckled the dark nourishment of the depths and your tree became sick and withered.
Therefore the ancients said that after Adam had eaten the apple, the tree of paradise withered. Your life needs the dark.
But if you know that it is evil, you can no longer accept it and you suffer anguish and you do not know why: Nor can you accept it as evil, else your good will reject you. Nor can you deny it since you know good and evil. Because of this the knowledge of good and evil was an insurmountable curse.
But if you return to primal chaos and if you feel and recognize that which hangs stretched between the two unbearable poles of fire, you will notice that you can no longer separate good and evil conclusively, neither through feeling nor through knowledge, but that you can discern the direction of growth only from below to above. You thus forget the distinction between good and evil, and you no longer know it as long as your tree grows from below to above. But as soon as growth stops, what was united in growth falls apart and once more you recognize good and evil.
You can never deny your knowledge of good and evil to yourself so that you could betray your good in order to live evil. For as soon as you separate good and evil, you recognize them. They are united only in growth. But you grow if you stand still in the greatest doubt, and therefore steadfastness in great doubt is’ a veritable flower of life.
He who cannot bear doubt does not bear himself.
Such a one is doubtful; he does not grow and hence he does not live. Doubt is the sign of the strongest and the weakest. The strong have doubt, but doubt has the weak. Therefore the weakest is close to the strongest, and if he can say to his doubt: “I have you,” then he is the strongest.
But no one can say yes to his doubt, unless he endures wide-open chaos. Because there are so many among us who can talk about anything, pay heed to what they live. What someone says can be very much or very little. Thus examine his life.
My speech is neither light nor dark, since it is the speech of someone who is growing. ~Carl Jung, Red Book, Page 301
Carl G. Jung’s Red Book – The Tree of Life – Liber Novus: Fine Art Print 25″x 32.8″
Liber Novus: Carl G. Jung’s Red Book – The Tree Of Life – Fine Art Print 25″x 32.8″ (63.5 x 83.3 cm) In Norse mythology Muspilli (or Muspelheim) is the abode of the fire Gods. INSCRIPTION TRANSLATION : “Finished on November 25, 1922.
The fire comes out of Muspilli and grasps the tree of life. A cycle is completed, but it is the cycle within the world egg. A strange God, the unnameable God of the solitary, is incubating it. New creatures form from the smoke and ashes.” As official publisher, DigitalFusion’s Imago Novus series has released limited editions of Jung’s full-page drawings, and official documentation from the Jung Foundation.
A leading innovator in image-reproduction technology, DigitalFusion has spared no effort in reproducing Jung’s exquisite pages as exactly, and as beautifully, as possible. Each print is authenticated through laser engraving and includes a numbered Certificate of Authenticity and description by Professor Sonu Shamdasani, UCL Centre for the History of Psychological Disciplines, London, UK.