1. Carl Jung and A renewal of religious beliefs has no form at present..

Carl Jung and A renewal of religious beliefs has no form at present

C.G. Jung Letters, Vol. 1: 1906-1950

To Wilhelm Laiblin

Dear Herr Laiblin, 19 March 1934

Best thanks for your letter, which interested me very much.

Also for your two open letters to the bishop.

As to your dream, I entirely agree with you that the falling stars and moons refer to the collapse of a whole world of ideas that has become obsolescent.

I think we may also hazard the conjecture that the three moons refer to the Trinity concept.

The second part of the dream unquestionably refers to the anima, who offers you food and drink at an exorbitant price.

There is nothing in the dream to indicate that there is any necessity, or a personal reason, to take up an attitude in public.

The stars are falling anyway, one cannot and need not accelerate their fall.

I think I can understand why the bishop has not replied to your letters.

Anyone who has to run a church under these circumstances cannot concern himself with problems that cast doubt on the validity of this same church.

The meaning of the dream is only that when the churches keep silent the psyche gives you food and drink.

I certainly understand that in the present atmosphere, which strives for collective solutions, it was obvious that you should speak out for yourself.

We are in fact not absolutely dependent on the unconscious but can and should on occasion act on our environment at our own discretion.

For my part I would have looked at the dream in another light.

It would have occurred to me that the unconscious, in a very unchristian manner, was urging me to go home and nourish myself in silence and bear the costs of such an undertaking.

So long as the Church does not practice restraint of conscience, it can safely be kept alive for all those, the weak ones, to whom no offence should be given.

I am therefore extremely conservative and reserved in these matters, for I am convinced that the Catholic as well as the Protestant form of faith have not by any means lost their raison d’etre.

A renewal of religious beliefs has no form at present, so that the weak and those who are dependent on forms should not be prematurely precipitated into formlessness.

I am naturally in complete agreement with the content of your letters.

If one says it at all, then one has to say it like that.

I only ask myself whether it is the right time to say such things now.

With best regards,

Yours sincerely,

C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 153-154.

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