The mouth utters the word, the sign, and the symbol. If the word is a sign, it means nothing. But if the word is a symbol, it means everything.
When the way enters death and we are surrounded by rot and horror, the way rises in the darkness and leaves the mouth as the saving symbol, the word.
It leads the sun on high, for in the symbol there is the release of the bound human force struggling with darkness. Our freedom does not lie outside us, but within us.
One can be bound outside, and yet one will still feel free since one has burst inner bonds.
One can certainly gain outer freedom through powerful actions, but one creates inner freedom only through the symbol. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, The Way of the Cross, Paragraph 7.
For Jung’s differentiation of the significance of signs and symbols, see psychological Types (1921, CW 6, §814ff). ~The Red Book, Footnote 258.
For Jung’s differentiation of the significance of signs and symbols, see psychological Types (1921, CW 6, §814ff).
