Carl Jung: The mythological aspect means religious attitude.
To K. W. Bash
Dear Colleague, 12 December 1958
Best thanks for your expose.
I fully agree with it, only I would ask you to state explicitly that in my psychology the “mythological” aspect means “religious attitude.”
You will surely have noticed in reading my writings that I do not mince my words and clearly and expressly point out that the regard for mythological parallels is conducive to a religious attitude.
The absence of a unitary view of the world is just what is deplored by many people today and is said to be a sad loss, unlike earlier times when people had a general Anschauung that was a bulwark against the difficulties of life.
It was the Enlightenment which destroyed this bulwark by reducing the unitary view to nothing but mythology. In its
modern usage mythology simply means “it is nothing,” since myths are unrealistic.
My whole endeavour has been to show that myth is something very realbecause it connects us with the instinctive bases of our existence.
The astronomer Hoyle offers an instructive example in this respect: he emphasizes that astronomy can’t find any God and that therefore there isn’t one, yet writes a novel in which a cosmic cloud represents this very God.
One has to be extremely careful in using the word “mythology” as it brings you into head-on collision with the all-pervading infantile arguments of the Enlightenment.
With cordial greetings,
Yours sincerely,
C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 468
