[Carl Jung and the Soul “as a living and self-existing being.”]
The spirit of the depths forced me to say this and at the same time to undergo it against myself, since I had not expected it then. I still labored misguidedly under the spirit of this time, and thought differently about the human soul.
I thought and spoke much of the soul.
I knew many learned words for her, I had judged her and turned her into a scientific object.
I did not consider that my soul cannot be the object of my judgment and knowledge: much more are my judgment and knowledge the objects of my Soul.
Therefore the spirit of the depths forced me to speak to my soul, to call upon her as a living and self-existing being. I had to become aware that I had lost my soul.
From this we learn how the spirit of the depths considers the soul: he sees her as a living and self-existing being, and with this he contradicts the spirit of this time for whom the soul is a thing dependent on man, which lets herself be judged and arranged, and whose circumference we can grasp.
I had to accept that what I had previously called my soul was not at all my soul, but a dead system.
Hence I had to speak to my soul as to something far off and unknown, which did not exist through me, but through whom I existed. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 232.
