Not I but God himself has deified it! (The Soul)
Psychology and Alchemy (Collected Works of C.G. Jung Vol.12)
Yet when I point out that the soul possesses by nature a religious function, and when I stipulate that it is the prime task of all education (of adults) to convey the archetype of the God-image, or its emanations and effects, to the conscious mind, then it is precisely the theologian who seizes me by the arm and accuses me of “psychologism.”
But were it not a fact of experience that supreme values reside in the soul (quite apart from the ai>Ti}Ufxov nvev/xa who is also there), psychology would not interest me in the least, for the soul would then be nothing but a miserable vapour.
I know, however, from hundredfold experience that it is nothing of the sort, but on the contrary contains the equivalents of everything that has been formulated in dogma and a good deal more, which is just what enables it to be an eye destined to behold the light.
This requires limitless range and unfathomable depth of vision.
I have been accused of “deifying the soul.”
Not I but God himself has deified it!
I did not attribute a religious function to the soul, I merely produced the facts which prove that the soul is naturaliter religiosa, i.e., possesses a religious function.
I did not invent or insinuate this function, it produces itself of its own accord without being prompted thereto by any opinions or suggestions of mine.
With a truly tragic delusion these theologians fail to see that it is not a matter of proving the existence of the light, but of blind people who do not know that their eyes could see.
It is high time we realized that it is pointless to praise the light and preach it if nobody can see it.
It is much more needful to teach people the art of seeing.
For it is obvious that far too many people are incapable of establishing a connection between the sacred figures and their own psyche: they cannot see to what extent the equivalent images are lying dormant in their own unconscious.
In order to facilitate this inner vision we must first clear the way for the faculty of seeing.
How this is to be done without psychology, that is, without making contact with the psyche, is frankly beyond my comprehension. ~~Carl Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, Pages 12-13
