Carl Jung: My sister, my soul, what do you say
I spoke to her: “My sister, my soul, what do you say?”
But she spoke, flattered and therefore tolerantly: “I let grass grow over everything that you do.”
I: “That sounds comforting and seems not to say much.”
S: “Would you like me to say much? I can also be banal, as you know, and let myself be satisfied in that way.”
I: “That seems hard to me. I believe that you stand in a close connection with everything beyond,” Carl Jung; Red Book
In “The psychological aspects of the Kore” (1951), Jung anonymously described this image as “Then she [the anima] appears in a church, taking the place of the altar, still over-life-size but with veiled face.”
He commented: “Dream xi restores the anima to the Christian church, not as an icon but as the altar itself The altar is the place of sacrifice and also the receptacle for consecrated relics” (CW 9, I, §369, 380).
On the left-hand side, there is the Arabic word for “daughters.” On the border of the image is the following inscription: “Dei sapientia in mysterio quae abscondita est quam praedestinavit ante secula in gloriam nostrum quam nemo principium huius secuti cognovit. Spiritus enim omnia scrutatur etiam profundo dei.” This is a citation from I Corinthians 2:7-10.
(Jung has omitted “Deus” before “ante secula.”)
The portions cited are marked here in italics: “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of the world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit:for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” On either side of the arch is the following inscription: “Spiritus et sponsa dicunt veni et qui audit dicat veni et qui sitit veniat qui vult accipiat aquam vitae gratis.” The text is from Revelation 22:17: “the Spirit and the bride say,
Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Above the arch is the following inscription: “ave virgo virginum.” This is the title of a medieval
hymn. Carl Jung; Red Book; Footnote #283.
Carl Jung on Imaginatio and the Soul
The concept of imaginatio is perhaps the most important key to the understanding of the opus.
The author of the treatise “De sulphure” speaks of the “imaginative faculty” of the soul in that passage where he is trying to do just what the ancients had failed to do, that is, give a clear indication of the secret of the art. The soul, he says, is the vice-regent of God (sui locum tenens sen vice Rex est) and dwells in the life-spirit of the pure blood.
It rules the mind (ilia gubernat mentem) and this rules the body.
The soul functions (operatur) in the body, but has the greater part of its function (operatio) outside the body (or, we might add by way of explanation, in projection).
This peculiarity is divine, since divine wisdom is only partly enclosed in the body of the world: the greater part of it is outside, and it imagines far higher things than the body of the world can conceive (concipere).
And these things are outside nature: God’s own secrets. The soul is an example of this: it too imagines many things of the utmost profundity (profundissima) outside the body, just as God does.
True, what the soul imagines happens only in the mind (non exequitur Jiisi in mente), but what God imagines happens in reality.
“The soul, however, has absolute and independent power [absolutam et. separatam pofestatem] to do other things [alia facere] than those the body can grasp.
But, when it so desires, it has the greatest power over the body [potestatem in corpus], for otherwise our philosophy would be in vain.
Thou canst conceive the greater, for we have opened the gates unto thee.” ~Carl Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, Pages 279-280.
Carl Jung Depth Psychology Blog
