Being a solitary and fleeing to the desert of the soul.
[Being a solitary and fleeing to the desert of the soul is not without its own inherent dangers.]
The solitary fled the world; he closed his eyes, plugged his ears and buried himself in a cave within himself but it was no use.
The desert sucked him dry, the stones spoke his thoughts, the cave echoed his feelings, and so he himself became desert, stone, and cave.
And it was all emptiness and desert, and helplessness and barrenness, since he did not shine and remained a son of the earth who sucked a book dry and was sucked empty by the desert.
He was desire and not splendor, completely earth and not sun.
The solitary went into the desert to find himself. But he did not want to find himself but rather the manifold meaning of holy scripture.
You can suck the immensity of the small and the great into yourself and you will become emptier and emptier, since immense fullness and immense emptiness are one and the same.
He wanted to find what he needed in the outer.
But you find manifold meaning only in yourself not in things, since the manifoldness of meaning is not something that is given at the same time, but is a succession of meanings.
The meanings that follow one another do not lie in things, but lie in you, who are subject to many changes, insofar as you take part in life.
Things also change, but you do not notice this if you do not change.
But if you change, the countenance of the world alters.
The manifold sense of things is your manifold sense. It is useless to fathom it in things.
And this probably explains why the solitary went into the desert, and fathomed the thing but not himself.
And therefore what happened to every desirous solitary also happened to him: the devil came to him with smooth tongue and clear reasoning and knew the right word at the right moment.
He lured him to his desire. I had to appear to him as the devil, since I had accepted my darkness.
I ate the earth and I drank the sun, and I became a greening tree that stands alone and grows. ~Carl Jung; The Red Book; Page 273.
Carl Jung: A solitary is cooking up healing potions.
Illustration 133 in Carl Jung’s Red Book.
A solitary is cooking up healing potions.
He makes offering to the four winds.
He greets the stars and touches the earth.
He holds something luminous in his hand.
Flowers sprout around him and the bliss of a new spring kisses all his limbs.
Birds fly around and the shy animals of the forest gaze at him.
He is far from men and yet the threads of their fate pass through his hands.
May your intercession be meant for him, so that his medicine grows ripe
and strong and brings healing to the deepest wounds.
For your sake he is solitary and waits alone between Heaven and earth,for
the earth to rise up to him and for Heaven to come down to him.
All peoples are still far off and stand behind the wall of darkness.
But I hear his words, which reach me from afar.
He has chosen a poor scribe, someone hard of hearing, who also stutters
when he writes.
I do not recognize him, the solitary. What is he saying? He says: ( {I suffer
fear and distress for the sake of man.”
I dug up old runes and magical sayings for words never reach men. Words
have become shadows.
Therefore I took old magical apparatuses and prepared hot potions and mixed
in secrets and ancient powers, things that even the cleverest would not guess at.
I stewed the roots of all human thoughts and deeds.
I watched over the cauldron through many starry nights. The brew ferments forever.
I need your intercession, your kneeling, your desperation and your patience.
I need your ultimate and highest longing, your purest willing, your most humble subjugation.
Solitary, who are you waiting for? Whose help do you require? There is none
who can rush to your aid, since all look to you and wait for your healing art.
We are all utterly incapable and need help more than you. Grant us help
so that we can help you in return.
The solitary speaks: Will no one stand by me in this need? should I leave
my work to help you so that you can help me again? But how should I help
you, if my brew has not grown ripe and strong? It was supposed to help you.
What do you hope from me?
Come to us! Why are you standing there cooking up marvels?
What can your healing and magical potion do for us? Do you believe in healing potions?
Look at life, behold how much it needs you!
