Carl Jung on “Prophet” “Prophecy” Anthology
Carl Jung on “Prophet” “Prophecy.” – Anthology
I am no prophet, and I cannot predict the future of our society. ~Carl Jung, CW 18, Para 1460
Not being a prophet, it is impossible for me to predict where the world is going to. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Page 18.
Is this record to be interpreted as an imaginative literary creation, the product of an incipient psychosis, or a psychological work veiled in prophetic language? Of course, Liber Novus is none of those latter things. ~Lance S. Owens, C.G. Jung and the Prophet Puzzle, Page 103
I do not feel called upon to found a religion, nor to proclaim my belief in one. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 69-71
Being a scientist I prefer not to be a prophet if I can help it. I am in no position to ascertain facts of the future. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 513.
In my estimation, second sight is not an illness, but a gift; you might as well say that it is pathological to be endowed with remarkable intelligence, but the possession of a gift always carries with it the burden of responsibility. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture V, Page 26.
We can have prophetic dreams without possessing second sight, innumerable people have such anticipatory dreams. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture V, Page 26.
It is commonly assumed that on some given occasion in prehistoric times, the basic mythological ideas were “invented” by a clever old philosopher or prophet, and ever afterward “believed” by a credulous and uncritical people. But the very word “invent” is derived from the Latin invenire, and means “to find” and hence to find something by “seeking” it. ~Carl Jung; Man and His Symbols; Page 69.
The prophet loved God, and this sanctified him. But Salome did not love God, and this profaned her. But the prophet did not love Salome, and this profaned him. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 248.
Myths which day has forgotten continue to be told by night, and powerful figures which consciousness has reduced to banality and ridiculous triviality are recognized again by poets and prophetically revived; therefore they can also be recognized “in changed form” by the thoughtful person. ~Carl Jung, Memories Dreams and Reflections, Page 282.
Through his inner vision the prophet discerns from the needs of his time the helpful image in the collective unconscious and expresses it in the symbol: because it speaks out of the collective unconscious it speaks for everyone-le vrai mot de la situation! ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 59-63.
The old prophet expresses persistence, but the young maiden denotes movement. ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 365.
On the night when I considered the essence of the God, I became aware of an image: I lay in a dark depth. An old man stood before me. He looked like one of the old prophets. A black serpent lay at his feet. Some distance away I saw a house with columns. A beautiful maiden steps out of the door. ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 245.
Just as the old prophets [ancients] stood before the Mysterium of Christ, I also stand as yet before the [this] Mysterium of-Christ, [insofar as I reassume the past] although I live two thousand years after-him [later] and at one time believed I was a Christian. But I had never been a Christ. ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 253, Footnote 228.
We could say that western man became conscious of the fact that this man, this teacher Jesus, was the divine man, whose path had been prepared for thousands of years by Osiris in Egypt and as the idea of the coming of the Messiah in Israel. This was no human conspiracy, probably Christ had a convincing effect, there was something about him which carried the conviction that he was filled with the spirit of God, that he was a prophet. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 201.
The form in which Christ presented the content of his unconscious to the world became accepted and was declared valid for all. Thereafter all individual fantasies became otiose and worthless, and were persecuted as heretical, as the fate of the Gnostic movement and of all later heresies testifies. The prophet Jeremiah is speaking just in this vein when he warns ~Carl Jung, CW 6, §BI.
E: “She loved the prophet who announced the new God to the world. She loved him, do you understand that? For she is my daughter.”
I: “What my eyes see is exactly what I cannot grasp. You, Elijah, who are a prophet, the mouth of God, and she, a bloodthirsty horror. You are the symbol of the most extreme contradiction.” ~Elijah to Carl Jung on Salome, Liber Novus, Page 246
I will be no savior, no lawgiver, no master teacher unto you. You are no longer little children. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 231
Carl Jung on Dreams and Prophecy
The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche (Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 8)
The prospective function, on the other hand, is an anticipation in the unconscious of future conscious achievements, something like a preliminary exercise or sketch, or a plan roughed out in advance.
The occurrence of prospective dreams cannot be denied. It would be wrong to call them prophetic, because at bottom they are no more prophetic than a medical diagnosis or a weather forecast.
They are merely an anticipatory combination of probabilities which may coincide with the actual behaviour of things but need not necessarily agree in every detail.
Only in the latter case can we speak of “prophecy.”
hat the prospective function of dreams is sometimes greatly superior to the combinations we can consciously foresee is not surprising, since a dream results from the fusion of subliminal elements and is thus a combination of all the perceptions, thoughts, and feelings which consciousness has not registered because of their feeble accentuation.
In addition, dreams can rely on subliminal memory traces that are no longer able to influence consciousness effectively.
With regard to prognosis, therefore, dreams are often in a much more favourable position than consciousness.
~Carl Jung, “General Aspects of Dream Psychology” (1916). In CW 8: The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche. P. 493