[Carl Jung on Judgment at Death from an Analysis Session with his patient Catherine “Katy” Cabot who recorded this passage in her Diary. She affectionately refers to him as “Onkle.”]
Onkel went on to say the following: “It is important to do everything one can before one dies. If, before one dies, one can tell oneself “I have scrubbed that floor well and with the utmost sincerity,” one can die! But if you say, “I haven’t scrubbed that floor in a decent way,” then you are in for it. Everything drops off of you when you die, but those things which you have really accomplished don’t drop off. When you die, you are on a par with a scrub woman, then it’s of no importance, whether you have done one book of ten books, but have you done that which you had to do, as well as you could? The judge in you gives it to you. If you have, then it’s in you! If you can tell yourself: “It’s been a wonderful performance,” but the judge in you says NO, then it was all no good, but if the inner judgment is in favor, its O.K. If it’s a “fact” it’s O.K. But it must be a fact that you have scrubbed in a decent way.”
“In the case of your mother, you may “think” you have done your duty, and if it is so, no one can take it from you. When it is really there no one can shake it!!! Don’t ask yourself if you have done your duty, you ought to know! If you have, nothing, nor anything anyone says, ought to put you in doubt, you’ve done your duty, it’s a fact and that is that. But why are you in doubt? Is it a fact? Have you done your duty? The judge in you know!”
Onkel added, just before we stopped our conversation: “During my illness, when I was almost dead, I saw what stands and what doesn’t stand!” YOUR REAL PERFORMANCE IS AN UNSHAKABLE FACT and if it was good and a thousand people assure you to the contrary, it nevertheless remains what it was!” That is what you carry away with you, what you have done! And that no one can ever take from you!” ~”Carl Jung; My Mother and I”; Page 535.
Note: Capitalized letters are capitalized in the book itself.
Image: A section of the Egyptian Book of the Dead written on papyrus showing the “Weighing of the Heart” in the Duat using the feather of Maat as the measure in balance.
