Marie-Louise Von Franz Number and Time Quotations
Basing himself on Pierre Janet’s early work, Jung therefore defined the psyche as a spectrum-like field of reality situated between the “infrared” pole of material bodily reactions at the one end, and the “ultraviolet” pole of the archetypes at the other. The center of our psychic inwardness slides along this “spectrum” like a ray of light and is drawn sometimes more to the one end, sometimes more to the other.
If one is overcome by an instinctive occurrence, then the emphasis of the ego awareness will slide more to the left, whereas if one is “possessed” by an idea one is more attracted to the righthand archetypal pole. It may, however, be surmised, as Jung himself realized, that the two poles partake of one and the same unknown living reality, and are registered only as two different factors in consciousness. ~Marie Louise Von Franz, Number and Time, Page 4
As Jung points out, the lowest collective level of our psyche is simply pure nature, “Nature, which includes everything, thus also the unknown, inclusive of matter.” ~Marie Louise Von Franz, Number and Time, Page 8
In it the preconscious aspect of the object is to be found, as it were, on the “animal” or instinctual level of the psyche. It is only with the activation of this level that synchronistic events appear to be constellated. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 8
To the assumption that the psyche be a quality of matter or that matter be a concrete aspect of the psyche I would make no objection, provided that ‘psyche’ be defined as the collective unconscious. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 8; Footnote 5
In consequence of the autonomy of the physical phenomena there cannot be only one approach to the mystery of being-there must be at least two: namely, the physical happening on the one hand, and the psychic reflection on the other, but it is hardly possible to decide what is reflecting what! ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 8; fn 5
Everything in the contents of the collective unconscious are not directly observable either. In both cases the essential nature of the thing will only be perceptible by inference, like the track of a nuclear particle in the Wilson chamber. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 8, fn 6
Practically speaking the archetypal ‘traces’ are observed first and foremost m dreams, where they become visible as psychic forms … they can however also appear concretely and objectively in the form of physical factors …. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 8, fn 6
But we do know for certain that the empirical world of appearances is in some way based on a transcendental background. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 9
I think you are correct in assuming that synchronicity, though in practice a relatively rare phenomenon, is an all-pervading factor or principle in the universe, i.e., in the unus mundus, where there is no incommensurability between so-called matter and so-called psyche. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 9
In this connection I always come upon the enigma of the natural number. I have a distinct feeling that number is a key to the mystery, since it is just as much discovered as it is invented. It is quantity as well as meaning. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 9
The I Ching, is a formidable psychological system that endeavors to organize the play of the archetypes … into a certain pattern, so that a ‘reading’ becomes possible. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 11
The orderedness which is illustrated in synchronistic happenings differs from that of the properties of natural numbers or the discontinuities of physics in that the latter have existed from eternity and occur regularly, whereas synchronistic events are acts of creation in time. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 12
The archetypes represent an unconscious objective reality which behaves at the same time like a subjective one-in other words, like a consciousness. Hence the reality underlying the unconscious effects includes the observing subject and is therefore constituted in a way we cannot conceive. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 15
The transcendental psychophysical background corresponds to a ‘potential world’ in so far as all those conditions which determine the form of empirical phenomena are inherent in it. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 18
(If Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious is accepted) “we become aware that in everyday waking life, situations are present which are fundamentally just as amazing as the more infrequent unusual manifestations of telepathy. ~Pascual Jordan, Number and Time, Page 36
Indeed [says Jung], this ordering capacity or quality of the mind also inheres in the other realms; physics can create order in the psychic, and the psyche in the realm of matter, but in principle both are subject to the mind or spirit, in other words-number. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 53
In this way every individual number possesses an overlapping aspect. Through its retrograde relationship to the primal monad each number “reaches across” to its successor. This hen-to-pan aspect, as Jung points out, is specific to every number. This fact can be illustrated as follows: ~Marie Louise Von Franz, Number and Time, Page 65
The Unity cannot be One, because it is the Whole, and cannot be distinguished from Two, for it resorbs in itself all contrasting aspects, opposing and uniting with one another, such as right and left, high and low, in front and behind, round and square, the ensemble of Yang and Yin. Every ensemble, Unity, and Pair, the Whole, when one wishes to express it in a numerical form, is to be found in all the uneven numbers beginning with the number three ( 1 plus 2), ~Marcel Granet, Number and Time, 102-103
In the mythological productions of the unconscious psyche, underworld divinities are particularly likely to appear in triadic form. According to Jung, they represent the flow of psychic energy, indicating a connection with time and fate. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 104
Jung defined natural number as the archetype of order which has become conscious. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 143
Jung also observed that undulating curves in his patients’ pictures indicated feeling. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 149
“The mandala symbolizes, by its central point, the ultimate unity of all archetypes as well as of the multiplicity of the phenomenal world, and is therefore the empirical equivalent of the metaphysical concept of the unus mundus.” ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 150
all emotional, and therefore energy laden, psychic processes evince a striking tendency to become rhythmical. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 157
An organism is not, in spite of its inherent, meaningful arrangement, necessarily meaningful in the total context. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 165
Without man’s reflecting consciousness the world is monstrously meaningless; for according to our experience man is the only creature that can determine “meaning” at all. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 165
. . . Since a creation without the reflecting consciousness of man has no recognizable meaning, the hypothesis of a latent meaning invests man with a cosmogonic significance, a veritable raison d’etre. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 165
In Mysterium Coniunctionis is, Jung made the important statement that the mandala is the inner psychic counterpart, and synchronistic phenomena the parapsychological equivalent, of the unus mundus. ~Marie Louise von Franz, Number and Time, Page 195
Jung applied the term “luminosity” to this quasi consciousness of the archetypes, in order to differentiate it from the “light” of ego consci<?usness. ~Marie Louise von Franz, Number and Time, Page 199
The meaning that unites these inner and outer happenings consists of knowledge unmediated by the sense organs. This quality of knowledge is what Jung calls “absolute knowledge, since it seems to be detached from our consciousness. ~Marie Louise von Franz, Number and Time, Page 200
It must be emphasized, however, that these ordering principles which underlie memory in the cell cannot be identical with what Jung termed “absolute knowledge,” but can only be an approximate form of it. ~Marie Louise Von Franz, Number and Time, Page 203, fn 23
As already mentioned, Jung termed number the most primitive form of the spirit. ~Marie Louise Von Franz, Number and Time, Page 213
When …something psychic happens in the individual which he feels as belonging to himself, that something is his own spirit. But if anything psychic happens which seems strange, then it is somebody else’s spirit, and it may be causing a possession. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 214
The hallmarks of spirit, are, firstly, the principle of spontaneous movement and activity; secondly, the spontaneous capacity to produce images independently of sense perception; and thirdly, the autonomous and sovereign manipulation of these images. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 214-215
Jung therefore describes genuine synchronistic phenomena as “parapsychological,” marginal phenomena which are only observable when our ego consciousness becomes “dimmed.” ~Marie Louise Von Franz, Number and Time, Page 225
The Aion [ eternal duration], is a boy who plays, placing the counters here and there. To a child belongs the cosmic mastery. ~Heraclitus, Number and Time, Page 26
Circle and quaternity on one side and the threefold rhythm on the other interpenetrate so that each is contained in the other …. Such interpenetrations of qualities and contents are typical not only of symbols in general, but also of the essential similarity of the contents symbolized. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 184
Both texts relate light, sun, and fire, as well as the god, the game of dice. Similarly the Atharva-Veda VI, speaks of the “brilliancy that is in the chariot, in the dice, in the strength of the bull, in the wind …. ” The “brilliancy” corresponds to what is known in primitive psychology as “mana,” and in the psychology of the unconscious as “libido investment” or “emotional value” or “feeling tone.” In point of emotional intensity, which is a factor of decisive importance for the primitive consciousness, the most heterogeneous things-rain, storm, fire, the strength of the bull, and the passionate game of dice-can be identical. In emotional intensity, game and gambler coincide. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 225-226
Conscious perception means discrimination. Thus, structures arising from the unconscious will be distinguished when they reach the threshold of perception; such structures then appear to be doubled, but are two completely identical entities-the one and the other-since it has not yet become clear which is the one and which is the other ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 92
But every tension of opposites culminates in a release, out of which comes the “third.” In the third, the tension is resolved and the lost unity is restored. Unity, the absolute One, cannot be numbered, it is indefinable and unknowable; only when it appears as a unit, the number one, is it knowable, for the “Other” which is required for this act of knowing is lacking in the condition of the One.
Three is an unfolding .of the One to a condition where it can be lmown-unity become recognizable; had it not been resolved into the polarity of the One and the Other, it would have remained fixed in a condition devoid of every quality. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 102
the infinite series of natural numbers corresponds to theinfinite [i.e., very large] number of individual creatures. That series likewise consists of individuals, and the properties of even the first ten members represent-if they represent anything at all-an abstract cosmogony derived from monad. One, as the first numeral, is unity.
But it is also “The unity,” the One, All-oneness, individuality and non-duality -not a numeral but a philosophical concept, an archetype and attribute of God, the monad.
It is quite proper that the human intellect should make these statements; but at the same time the intellect is determined and limited by its conception of oneness and its implication …. Theoretically, the same logical operation could be performed for each of the following conceptions of number, but in practice the process soon comes to an end because of the increase in complications, which become too numerous to handle. Every further unit introduces new properties and new modifications. Thus, it is a property of the number four that equations of the fourth degree can be solved [i.e., through radicals], whereas equations of the fifth degree cannot.
The necessary statement of the number fol!r, therefore, is that, among other things, it is an apex and simultaneously the end of a preceding ascent. Since with each additional unit one or more new mathematical properties appear, the statements attain such a complexity that they can no longer be formulated. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 38-39
Jung has explained the step from one to two and from two to three in the following way: The number one claims an exceptional position, which we meet again in the natural philosophy of the Middle Ages. According to this, one is not a number at all; the first number is two. Two is the first number because, with it, separation and multiplication begin, which alone make counting possible. With the appearance of the number two, another appears alongside the one, a happening which is so striking that in many languages “the other” and “the second” are expressed by the same word.
Also associated with the number two is the idea of right and left, and remarkably enough, of favourable and unfavourable, good and bad. The “other” can have a “sinister” significance or one feels it, at least, as something opposite and alien. Therefore, argues a medieval alchemist, God did not praise the second day of creation, because on this day (Monday, the day of the moon) the binarius, alias the devil, came into existence. Two implies a one which is different and distinct from the “numberless”
One. In other words, as soon as the number two appears, a unit is produced out of the original unity, and this unit is none other than the same unity split into two and turned into a “number.” The “One” and the “Other” form an opposition, but there is no opposition between one and two, for these are simple numbers which are distinguished only by their arithmetical value and by nothing else.
The “One,” however, seeks to hold to its one-and-alone existence, while the “Other” ever strives to be another opposed to the One. The One will not let go of the Other because, if it did, it would lose its character; and the Other pushes itself away from the One in order to exist at all.
Thus there arises a tension of opposites between the One and the Other. But every tension of opposites culminates in a release, out of which comes the “third.” In the third, the tension is resolved and the lost unity is restored. Unity, the absolute One, cannot be numbered, it is indefinable and unknowable; only when it appears as a unit, the number one, is it knowable, for the “Other” which is required for this act of knowing is lacking in the condition of the One.
Three is an unfolding of the One to a condition where it can be known-unity becomes recognizable; had it not been resolved into the polarity of the One and the Other, it would have remained fixed in a condition devoid of every quality. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 97-98
The four [forms], as it were, a frame for the one, accentuated as the centre. . . . By unfolding into four it acquires distinct characteristics and can therefore be known. . . . So long as a thing is in the unconscious it has no recognizable qualities and is consequently merged with the universal unknown, with the unconscious All and Nothing, with what the Gnostics called a “non-existent all-being.” But as soon as the unconscious content enters the sphere of consciousness it has already split into the “four,” that is to say it can become an object of experience only by virtue of the four basic functions of consciousness.
It is perceived as something that exists (sensation); it is recognized as this and distinguished from that ( thinking); it is evaluated as pleasant or unpleasant, etc. (feeling); and finally, intuition tells us where it came from and where it is going. . . . The splitting into four has the same significance as the division of the horizon into four quarters, or the year into four seasons. That is, through the act of becoming conscious the four basic aspects of a whole judgment are rendered visible. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 121
If a simple pair of opposites, say fire and earth, are bound together by a mean [μfoor J, and if this bond is a geometrical proportion, the one mean can only connect two plane figures, since two means are required to connect solids …. The two-dimensional connection is not yet a physical reality, for a plane without extension in the third dimension is only an abstract thought. If it is to become a physical reality, three dimensions and therefore two means are required. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 127
It is interesting to note that Plato begins by representing the union of opposites two-difi1;ensionally, as an intellectual problem to be solved by thinking, but then comes to see that its solution does not add up to reality. In the former case we have to do with a self-subsistent triad, and in the latter with a quaternity.
This was the dilemma that perplexed the alchemists for more than a thousand years, and . . . is also found in psychology as the opposition between the functions of consciousness, three of which are fairly well differentiated, while the fourth, undifferentiated, “inferior” function is undomesticated, unadapted, uncontrolled, and primitive. Because of its contamination with the collective unconscious, it possesses archaic and mystical qualities, and is the complete opposite of the most differentiated function. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 127-128
He had to content himself with the harmony of airy thought-structures that lacked weight, and with a paper surface that lacked depth. The step from three to four brought him sharply up against something unexpected and alien to his thought, something heavy, inert, and limited, which no μ,~ /Jv and no “privatio boni” can conjure away or diminish. Even God’s fairest creation is corrupted by it, and idleness, stupidity, malice, discontent, sickness, old age and death fill the glorious body of the “blessed god.” ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 128
Three of the four orienting functions are available to consciousness. This is confirmed by the psychological experience that a rational type, for instance, whose superior function is thinking [in the sense of intellect], has at his disposal one, or possibly two, auxiliary functions of an irrational nature, namely sensation ( the “fonction du reel”) and intuition (perception via the unconscious). His unconscious function will be feeling (evaluation), which remains in a retarded state and is contaminated with the unconscious. It refuses to come along with the others and often goes wildly off on its own.
This peculiar dissociation is, it seems, a product of civilization, and it denotes a freeing of consciousness from any excessive attachment to the “spirit of gravity.” … The connection with the earlier attitude is maintained because part of the personality remains behind in the previous situation; that is to say, it lapses into unconsciousness and starts building up the shadow. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 129
Jung once remarked, one only subsequently recognizes the relation of number to mythological assertions, although the contents of number undoubtedly adhere in an a priori fashion to these assertions; they are only later made conscious. [They are not added on.] In this sense number is a genuine symbol, not only by virtue of its arithmetical nature, but its contents as well. ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 143-144
talks of energy although he has nothing measurable to manipulate, besides which the concept of energy is a strictly defined mathematical quantity which cannot be applied as such to anything psychic. . . . If psychology nevertheless insists on employing its own concept of energy for the purpose of expressing the dynamism [evep’}’etct] of the psyche, it is not of course being used as a mathematical formula, but only as its analogy. But note: the analogy is itself an older intuitive idea from which the concept of physical energy originally developed.
The latter rests on an earlier application of an l:vepyeta not mathematically defined, which can be traced back to the primitive or archaic idea of the “extraordinarily potent.” This is the concept of mana. . . . The use of the term libido in the newer medical psychology has surprising affinities with the primitive mana. This archetypal idea is therefore far from being only primitive, but differs from the physicist’s conception of energy by the fact that it is essentially qualitative and not quantitative. In psychology the exact measurement of quantities is replaced by an approximate determination of intensities, for which purpose . . . we enlist the function of feeling (valu1ation). ~Carl Jung, Number and Time, Page 56-157
