Today I no longer need these conversations with the anima, for I no longer have such emotions.
But if I did have them, I would deal with them in the same way.
Today I am directly conscious of the anima’s ideas because I have learned to accept the contents of the unconscious and to understand them.
I know how I must behave toward the inner images.
I can read their meaning directly from my dreams, and therefore no longer need a mediator to communicate them.
I wrote these fantasies down first in the Black Book; later, I transferred them to the Red Book, which I also embellished with drawings?
It contains most of my mandala drawings.
In the Red Book I tried an esthetic elaboration of my fantasies, but never finished it.
I became aware that I had not yet found the right language, that I still had to translate it into something else.
Therefore I gave up this estheticizing tendency in good time, in favor of a rigorous process of understanding.
I saw that I so much fantasy needed firm ground underfoot, and that I must first return wholly to reality.
For me, reality meant scientific comprehension.
I had to draw concrete conclusions from the insights the unconscious had given me–and that task was to become a life work. ~Carl Jung, Memories Dreams and Reflections.
