Carl Jung on Pleroma – Anthology
First: these qualities are differentiated and separate in us; therefore they do not cancel each other out, but are effective. Thus we are the victims of the pairs of opposites. The Pleroma is rent within us. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 348.
Jung gave great importance to the papal bull of the Assumptio Maria. He held that it “points to the hieros gamos in the pleroma, and this in turn implies, as we have said, the future birth of the divine child, who, in accordance with the divine trend toward incarnation, will choose as his birthplace the empirical man. This metaphysical process is known as the individuation process in the psychology of the unconscious” ~Liber Novus, Footnote 200, Page 299.
If you do not differentiate yourselves from sexuality and from spirituality, and do not regard them as an essence both above and beyond you, you are delivered over to them as qualities of the Pleroma. ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 353.
God is creation, for he is something definite, and therefore differentiated from the Pleroma. ~Philemon, Liber Novus, Page 348.
God is a quality of the Pleroma, and everything I have said about creation also applies to him. ~Philemon, Liber Novus, Page 348.
Moreover, God is the Pleroma itself, just as each smallest point in the created and uncreated is the Pleroma itself. ~Philemon, Liber Novus, Page 348.
Everything that differentiation takes out of the Pleroma is a pair of opposites, therefore the devil always belongs to God. ~Philemon, Liber Novus, Page 348.
Although he is already born in the pleroma, his birth in time can only be accomplished when it is perceived, recognized, and declared by man. ~Carl Jung; Psychology and Religion; Page 462; Para 748.
The articles of faith of science are: space, time and causality. The fourth is missing and rejected: the pleroma. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 59.
The inner instability of Yahweh is the prime cause not only of the creation of the world, but also of the pleromatic drama for which mankind serves as a tragic chorus. . . . the two main climaxes are formed first by the Job tragedy and secondly by Ezekiel’s revelation. ~Carl Jung, Answer to Job, Para 686.
For my private use I call the sphere of paradoxical existence, i.e., the instinctive unconscious, the Pleroma , a term borrowed from Gnosticism. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 59-63.
In the Pleroma, Above and Below lie together in a strange way and produce nothing; but when it is disturbed by the mistakes needs of the individual a waterfall arises between Above and Below, a dynamic something that is the symbol. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 59-63.
That is how we should understand the pleroma, the fullness, which is the origin of the existence of the world, where everything is contained but in potentia, as a possibility, anything can come out of it. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 254.
The characteristic difference is that God’s incarnation is understood to be a historical fact in the Christian belief, while in the Jewish Gnosis it is an entirely pleromatic process symbolized by the concentration of the supreme triad of Kether, Hokhmah, and Binah in the figure of Tifereth. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 91-93.
X. is certainly all wet when he thinks that the Jewish Gnosis contains nothing of the Christian mystery. It contains practically the whole of it, but in its unrevealed pleromatic state. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 91-93.
Everything is present, altogether and all at once, in the constant presence of the Pleroma. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 22
Man is the point that has become visible, stepping out from the Pleroma, knowing what he is doing, and able to name the things about him. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 22
They are in the world only on parole and are soon to be returned to the pleroma [fullness] where they started originally. They have not formed a connection with this world; they are suspended in the air; they are neurotic, living the provisional life. ~Carl Jung, Kundalini Seminar, Page 28.
At immeasurable distance a lonely star stands in the zenith. This is the one God of this one man, this is his world, his Pleroma, his divinity. In this world man is Abraxas, the creator and destroyer of his own world. This star is the God and the goal of man, this is his one guiding God, in him man goes to his rest, toward him goes the long journey of the soul after death, in him everything that man withdraws from the greater world shines resplendently. To this one God man shall pray. ~The Black Books, Vol. I, Page 59
He [Philemon] spoke about me-that I was related to you-mortal with you-the life of your body, your solar mantle. Philemon is immortal. The star seed in you is immortal. It is a piece of the world, a Pleroma, a light and a darkness. Light insofar as it is~ differentiated from the Pleroma; darkness, insofar as it is the Pleroma itself. ~Jung’s Soul, The Black Books, Vol. VII, Page 148
Soul: “The first light designates the Pleroma.
The second light designates Abraxas.
The third light, the sun.
The fourth light, the moon.
The fifth light, the earth.
The sixth light, the phallus.
The seventh light, the star.
Why are the bird, the heavenly mother, and heaven missing? They are all enclosed in the star. When you look toward the star, you will look through them. They are the bridges to the star. They make up the single 7th light, the highest, the floating, which rises with roaring flapping of wings, released from the embrace of the tree of light with 6 branches and I blossom, in which the star God lay slumbering.
The 6 lights are singular and form the multiplicity. The one light is one and forms the unity, it is the blossoming crown of the tree, the holy egg, the seed of the world endowed with wings so it can reach its place. The one gives rise to the many again and again, and the many entails the one.” ~Carl Jung, The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 254-255
If you do not differentiate yourselves from sexuality or from spirituality, and do not regard them as things-in-themselves, you are delivered over to them as qualities of the Pleroma. ~Carl Jung, The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 224
I swear to you, you hideous madness of Abraxas, turn your paws against the eternal Pleroma, let go of man. He is too puny and an unworthy sacrifice to your power. We are whining dogs before you, the lion. This hunting hound is of no use to you. ~Carl Jung, The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 219
The number of Gods and devils is as innumerable as the host of stars. Each star is a God, and each space that a star fills is a devil. But the empty fullness of the whole is the Pleroma. Abraxas is the effect of the whole. Only the ineffective opposes him. ~Carl Jung, The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 220
Equality prevails not for the sake of God, but only for the sake of man. For the Gods are many, while men are few. The Gods are mighty and endure their manifoldness. like the stars they abide in eternal solitude, separated by vast distances. ~Carl Jung, The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 220
Thus, just as it is no use to reflect upon the Pleroma, it is not worthwhile to worship the multiplicity of the Gods. Least of all does it serve to worship the first God, the effective fullness, and the summum bonum. By our prayer we can add nothing to it, and take nothing from it; because effective emptiness gulps down everything. ~Carl Jung, The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 221
Abraxas stands above God and devil. He is improbable probability, that which takes unreal effect. If the Pleroma had an essence, Abraxas would be its manifestation. ~Philemon, The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 212
Yet because we are parts of the Pleroma, the Pleroma is also in us. Even in the smallest point the Pleroma is endless and eternal, since small and great are qualities that are contained in it. ~Philemon, The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 207
We are also the Pleroma itself; hence I say that we are not in the Pleroma, but we are it. Figuratively, the Pleroma is the smallest point in us and the boundless firmament about us. ~Philemon, The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 207
Creatures came into being, but not the creation since it is the very quality of the Pleroma, as much as noncreation, eternal death. The creation is ever-present, and so is death. The Pleroma has everything, differentiation and nondifferentiation. ~Philemon, The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 208
If we do not differentiate, we move beyond our essence, beyond creation, and we fall into nondifferentiation, which is the other quality of the Pleroma. We fall into the Pleroma itself and cease to be created beings. We lapse into dissolution in eternity and endlesssness. This is the death of the creature. ~Philemon, The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 208
You must not forget that the Pleroma has no qualities. We create these through thinking. If, therefore, you strive for distinctiveness or sameness, you pursue your thoughts which are not in the Pleroma about the qualities of the Pleroma, which do not exist. ~Philemon, The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 210
We need no proof of their [God/Devil] existence, since it is enough that we have to keep speaking about God and the devil. They are both manifestations of the non-existent qualities of the Pleroma. ~Philemon, The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 211
But we are the Pleroma, for we are enclosed in and part of the eternal and the endless. But we have no share therein, as we are infinitely removed from the Pleroma; not spatially or temporally, but essentially, since we are distinguished from the Pleroma in our essence as creation, which is confined within time and space. ~Carl Jung, The Black Books, Vol. V, Page 285
The Gods are favorable and unfavorable, impersonal, the souls of stars, influences, forces, grandfathers of souls, rulers in the heavenly world, both in space and in force. They are neither dangerous nor kind, strong, yet humble, clarifications of the Pleroma and of the eternal emptiness, configurations of the eternal qualities. ~Carl Jung, The Black Books, Vol. V, Page 271
Man becomes through the principium individuationis. He strives for absolute individuality, through which he ever increasingly concentrates the absolute dissolution of the Pleroma. Through this he makes the Pleroma the point that contains the greatest tension and is itself a shining star, immeasurably small, just as the Pleroma is immeasurably great. ~Carl Jung, The Black Books, Vol. V, Page 271-272
The more concentrated the Pleroma becomes, the stronger the star of the individual becomes. It is surrounded by shining clouds, a heavenly body in the making, comparable to a small sun. It emits fire. Therefore it is called: “I am a star, wandering about with you” ~Carl Jung, The Black Books, Vol. V, Page 272
. [“]He spoke about me—that I was related to you—mortal with you—the life of your body, your solar mantle. Philemon is [1/2] immortal. The star seed in you is immortal. It is a piece of the world, a Pleroma, a light and a darkness. Light insofar as it is differentiated from the Pleroma; darkness, insofar as it is the Pleroma itself.
The light shines out of difference. Differentiation strengthens the light of the star—Philemon raises himself higher. His head is in the blazing fire. He burns upward to the eternal fiery heavens. What is it? A weight lies on me—a burden? Is your body burdened? Is a poison in it? I see—you have not fulfilled the sacrificial service. It should be fulfilled.” ~Carl Jung, The Black Books, Vol. VII, Page 148
The following was added here in LN:
“First: these qualities are differentiated and separate in us; therefore they do not cancel each other out, but are effective. Thus we are the victims of the pairs of opposites. The Pleroma is rent within us. / Second: these qualities belong to the Pleroma, and we must possess and live them only in the name and under the sign of differentiation. We must differentiate ourselves from these qualities. They cancel each other out in the Pleroma, but not in us. Distinction from them saves us” Vol. VI, Page 209, fn 20
“But he is distinct from creation in that he is much more indefinite and indeterminable. He is less differentiated than creation, since the ground of his essence is effective fullness. Only insofar as he is definite and differentiated is he creation, and as such he is the manifestation of the effective fullness of the Pleroma. Everything that we do not differentiate falls into the Pleroma and is cancelled out by its opposite. If, therefore, we do not differentiate God, effective fullness is canceled out for us” 211, fn 33
