Letters of C. G. Jung: Volume 2, 1951-1961
To Erich Neumann
Dear Neumann, 15 December 1955
Deepest thanks for your heartfelt letter.
Let me in return express my condolences on the loss of your mother.
I am sorry I can only set down these dry words, but the shock I have experienced is so great
that I can neither concentrate nor recover my power of speech.
I would have liked to tell the heart you have opened to me in friendship that two days before the death of my
wife I had what one can only call a great illumination which, like a flash of lightning, lit up a centuries-old secret
that was embodied in her and had exerted an unfathomable influence on my life.
I can only suppose that the illumination came from my wife, who was then mostly in a coma, and that
the tremendous lighting up and release of insight had a retroactive effect upon her, and was one reason why she
could die such a painless and royal death.
The quick and painless end-only five days between the final diagnosis and death-and this experience
have been a great comfort to me.
But the stillness and the audible silence about me, the empty air and the infinite distance, are hard to bear.
With best greetings also to your wife and my warmest thanks,
Ever your devoted
C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 284.