The death of Christ took no suffering away from the world, but his life has taught us much; namely, that it pleases the one God if the individual lives his own life against the power of Abraxas. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 371.
You are the suffering heart of your one-star God, who is Abraxas to his world. ~Carl Jung’s Soul, The Red Book, Page 371
In early 1913, he [Jung] read Dieterich’s Abraxas, still from the perspective of his libido theory. In January and October 1915, while doing military service, he studied the works of the Gnostics intensively. ~The Black Books, Vol. I, Page 50
But you have in you the one God, the wonderfully beautiful and kind, the solitary, starlike, unmoving, he who is older and wiser than the father, he who has a safe hand, who leads you among all the darknesses and death scares of dreadful Abraxas. ~Jung’s Soul, The Black Books, Page 275
As a God, you are the great Abraxas in your world. But as a man you are the heart of the one God who appears to his world as the great Abraxas, the feared, the powerful, the donor of madness, he who dispenses the water of life, the spirit of the tree of life, the daimon of the blood, the death bringer. ~Jung’s Soul, The Black Books, Page 275
Pain and disappointment fill the world of Abraxas with coldness, all of your life’s warmth slowly sinks into the depths of your soul, into the midpoint of man, where the far blue starlight of your one God glimmers. ~Jung’s Soul, The Black Books, Page 276
The works of Abraxas are to be fulfilled, for consider that in your world you yourself are Abraxas and force your creature to fulfil your work. Here, where you are the creature subjugated to Abraxas, you must learn to fulfill the work of life. ~Jung’s Soul, The Black Books, Vol. V, Page 277
So live life, do not flee Abraxas, provided that he compels you and you can recognize his necessity. In one sense I say to you: do not fear him, do not love him. In another sense I say: fear him, love him. He is the life of the earth, that says enough. ~Jung’s Soul, The Black Books, Vol. V, Page 277
I, your soul, am your mother, who tenderly and frightfully surrounds you, your nourisher and corrupter; I prepare good things and poison for you. I am your intercessor with Abraxas. I teach you the arts that protect you from Abraxas. ~Jung’s Soul, The Black Books, Vol. V, Page 277
The more you free yourself from him [Abraxas], the more you approach death, since he is the life of the universe. But he is also universal death. Therefore you fall victim to him again, not in life but in dying. So remember him, do not worship him, but also do not imagine that you can flee him since he is all around you. ~Carl Jung, The Black Books, Vol. V, Page 275
The death of Christ took no suffering away from the world, but his life has taught us much; namely, that it pleases the one God if the individual lives his own life against the power of Abraxas. ~Carl Jung, The Black Books, Vol. V, Page 276
Only by living life can you free yourself from it. So live it to such a degree that it befits you. To the degree that you live it, you also fall victim to the power of Abraxas and his dreadful deceptions. But to the same degree the star God in you gains in pew longing and power, in that the fruit of deception and human disappointment falls to him. ~Carl Jung, The Black Books, Vol. V, Page 276
You didn’t want to obey, you resisted. But you should not resist any humiliation. You should accept the injustice, since Abraxas wants to knead you into people like yeast into flour.” ~Jung’s Soul, The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 217
I need a new shadow, since I have recognized the terrible Abraxas and have drawn myself back from him. The cold grew and my star blazed brighter. ~Carl Jung, The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 228
What are you thinking of? He is the Abraxas of the earth. No one bestows joy on the earthly ones as he does. He is the hermaphrodite, who for joy unites what is separated. He makes you strong and happy on earth. He preserves the life and happiness of men. How could you grow without him? You poor fools! If you don’t know how to serve the Gods, at least serve yourselves. ~Jung Soul, The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 279
Further on in the discussion, Jung commented:
“First God is felt traditionally, conventionally, then dynamically, then felt into humanity (as magical effect of the person).
But this results in a God beyond good and evil. It leads to the devil (as war). It is a primitive thought: everything alien is magical. Also medieval. Mlle V shows us that she experiences God as a subjective dynamis, and between men it is the personal. A God beyond good and evil questions the human relationship . . . a God beyond good and evil is not Christian either. The Christian is only an etiquette.—If she was to continue consequently, she would come between the poles. At the end she takes the view, according to which she turns into a Christ herself. This is already analytical. The Christians become christiani, not christoi” (MAP, pp. 99ff.). Jung’s comments concerning a God beyond good and evil converge with the conception of Abraxas that he was elaborating in these entries. ~The Black Books, Vol. V, Page 280, fn 417
Unification with the physical Abraxas occurs through the human woman, but that with the spiritual Abr. Occurs through me; that is why you must be with me.” ~Jung’s Soul, The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 261
I swear to you, you hideous madness of Abraxas, turn your paws against the eternal Pleroma, let go of man. He is too puny and an unworthy sacrifice to your power. We are whining dogs before you, the lion. This hunting hound is of no use to you. ~Carl Jung, The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 219
The number of Gods and devils is as innumerable as the host of stars. Each star is a God, and each space that a star fills is a devil. But the empty fullness of the whole is the Pleroma. Abraxas is the effect of the whole. Only the ineffective opposes him. ~Carl Jung, The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 220
This is a God you knew nothing about. We call him Abraxas. He is even more indefinite than God and the devil. Nothing stands opposed to him but the ineffective; hence his effective nature unfolds itself freely. ~Philemon, The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 212
Abraxas stands above God and devil. He is improbable probability, that which takes unreal effect. If the Pleroma had an essence, Abraxas would be its manifestation. ~Philemon, The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 212
The human has fallen from you. You have come closer to the stars. The kingdom of what is to come will open. Let silence enter, the silence of eternity, since all paths, even the most winding, lead to the valley of silence. ~Philemon, The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 213
You unite yourself with Abraxas through me. First you give me your heart, and then you live through me. I am the bridge to Abraxas. Thus the tree of light arises in you and you become the tree of light and Phanes arises from you. You have anticipated, but not understood this. At the time you had to separate from Abraxas to become individual, opposed to the drive. Now you become one with Abraxas. This happens through me. You cannot do this. Therefore you must remain with me. unification with the physical Abraxas occurs through the human woman, but that with the spiritual Abr. occurs through me; that is why you must be with me. ~Jung’s Soul, The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 261
If God no longer understands me, I must recede into remoteness from God. I must protect myself from his loving vengeance. Remoteness from God is procession along the 4 false ways, it is crucifixion, it is Abraxas. The 4 false ways are: being one with the outer worldly being, & being one with the soul, being one with splendor, Philemon, being one with the shadow, Ka. ~Jung’s Soul, The Black Books, Vol. VII, Page 177
On February 29, 1916. Toni Wolff noted, “Sexuality = Collective general feelings = in the unconscious. Abraxas head, lion, as danger: cosmic thoughts. More conventional: general collective and cosmic intellectual thoughts. —unconscious Abraxas tail and serpent, sexuality as danger (dream 26 II 1916)” (Diary L, p. 178). ~The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 261, fn 268
What the God speaks is life, what the devil speaks is death, but Abraxas speaks that hallowed and accursed word that is at once life and death. Abraxas produces truth and lying, in the same good and evil, light and darkness, in the same word and in the same act. ~Philemon, The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 214
You should worship only one God. The other Gods are unimportant. Abraxas is to be feared. Therefore it was a deliverance when he separated himself from me. You do not need to seek him. He will find you, just like Eros. ~Jung’s Soul, The Black Books, Vol. V, Page 272
He gives joy and peace, since he is beyond death and beyond what is subject to change. He is no servant and no friend of Abraxas. He himself is an Abraxas, but not unto you, but in himself and his distant world, since you yourself are a God who lives in faraway realms and who renews himself in his ages and creations and peoples, just as powerful to them as Abraxas is to you. ~Jung’s Soul, The Black Books, Vol. V, Page 275
Therefore because you are the heart of your God, aspire toward him, love him, live for him. Fear Abraxas, who rules over the human world. ~Jung’s Soul, The The Black Books, Vol. V, Page 275
You are the suffering heart of your one star God, who is Abraxas to his world. Therefore because you are the heart of your God, aspire toward him, love him, live for him. Fear Abraxas, who rules over the human world. ~Jung’s Soul, The The Black Books, Vol. V, Page 275
The death of Christ took no suffering away from the world, but his life has taught us much; namely, that it pleases the one God if the individual lives his own life against the power of Abraxas. The one God thus delivers himself from the suffering of the earth into which his Eros plunged him; since when the one God saw the earth, he sought its procreation, and forgot that a world was already given to him in which he was Abraxas. ~Jung’s Soul, The The Black Books, Vol. V, Page 276
But the freeing of man from the power of Abraxas docs not follow man’s withdrawing from the power of Abraxas because no one can pull away from it-but through subjugating himself to it. Even Christ had to subjugate himself to the power of Abraxas, and Abraxas killed him in a gruesome manner. ~Jung’s Soul, The The Black Books, Vol. V, Page 276
Only by living life can you free yourself from it. So live it to such a degree that it befits you. To the degree that you live it, you also fall~ victim to the power of Abraxas and his dreadful deceptions. But to the same degree the star God in you gains in pew longing and power, in that the fruit of deception and human disappointment falls to him. ~Jung’s Soul, The The Black Books, Vol. V, Page 276
If you flee Abraxas from fear, you escape pain and disappointment and you remain terrified, that is, out of unconscious love you cling to Abraxas and your one God cannot catch fire. The Black Books, Vol. V, Page 276
So do not flee from Abraxas, do not seek him. You feel his coercion, do not \ resist him, so that you shall live and pay your ransom. ~Jung’s Soul, The The Black Books, Vol. V, Page 277
The painting Systema Mundi Totius has a legend at the bottom: “Abraxas dominus mundi” (Abraxas Master of the World). The Black Books, Vol. V, Page 278, fn 403
He deems you worthy of this sacrifice. Abraxas has mercy upon you. ~Jung’s Soul, The Black Books, Vol. V, Page 279
1 am going to teach it to my own, to the nearest, so don’t throw it on the street. Why do you want to help Abraxas? He has the power, he should create from himself; why should l bleed for him and be consumed by eternal :fires? My God, deliver me from fear. Give me the redeeming vision, into your hands l commit my spirit. ~Jung’s Soul, The The Black Books, Vol. V, Page 279
For example, Jung’s vision of the God Abraxas bore striking parallels to the figure of Mercurius in alchemy. He noted in retrospect that “my encounter with alchemy was decisive for me, as it provided me with the historical basis which I had hitherto lacked.” ~The Black Books, Vol. I, Page 108
At immeasurable distance a lonely star stands in the zenith. This is the one God of this one man, this is his world, his Pleroma, his divinity. In this world man is Abraxas, the creator and destroyer of his own world. This star is the God and the goal of man, this is his one guiding God, in him man goes to his rest, toward him goes the long journey of the soul after death, in him everything that man withdraws from the greater world shines resplendently. To this one God man shall pray. ~The Black Books, Vol. I, Page 59
As a God, you are the great Abraxas in your world. But as a man you are the heart of the one God who appears to his world as the great Abraxas, the feared, the powerful, the donor of madness, he who dispenses the water of life, the spirit of the tree of life, the daimon of the blood, the death bringer. ~Carl Jung, Red Book, Page 371
The message of Abraxas, for example, the god in whom the Devil is also present, derives from the private print published by Jung in 1916, Septem sermones ad mortuos, in which he speaks of this gnostic deity in hymnal language. The same is true of Demian’s reinterpretation of the myth of Cain and the story of the thieves on Mount Golgotha, which also derive from gnostic thought. ~Günter Baumann, 9th International Hesse Colloquium in 1997, Page 4
C.G. has the same problem. His libido is still strong and possessive. He is never content. He built his tower as a tribute to the dream of life he would have liked to realize and never could. [This was Bollingen]. He had to compromise because his nature is essentially complex. He wants simplicity because he is not simple. He has always tried to foist upon Emma the tangible burdens of his complex strivings. He accumulates and then cannot maintain. Thus he is also surrounded by the decaying heaps of things and people from which his libido has receded and which are left to Emma to deal with. She expresses this remorseless continuity, this Abraxoid character to his desiring vitality. Always she reminds him of the debt intuitiveness piles up in the world of real things. He hates sensation because it is unexpressive, inarticulate and quite remorseless and indifferent to the flutters and strivings of intuition which is forever trying to escape from the real and the actual. New desires that add more and more to the heap of tangible liabilities must be renounced if this essential simplification is to be attained. Things cannot create happiness. They only make Egypt more lascivious and terrible in its effect. They only make you forget, like alcohol and infatuation. This is terrible Abraxas which makes life and death with the same breath and in the same act. The right way for me is toward an increasing simplification of life in the midst of a world which goes ever towards an increasing specialization and complexity. ~Peter Baynes, Jung’s Apprentice, Page 211-212
Its name is Abraxas.
Then the dead demand further information about this primal being, which is neither the summum bonum nor limitless evil; Abraxas is life, “the mother of good and evil.”
Hence Abraxas begets truth and falsehood. The third sermon continues:
It is the hermaphrodite of the earliest beginning.
It is abundance that seeketh union with emptiness.
It is holy begetting.
It is love and love’s murder.
It is the saint and his betrayer.
It is the brightest light of day and the darkest night of madness.
To look upon it is blindness.
to know it is sickness.
To worship it is death.
To fear it is wisdom.
To resist it is not redemption. ~Gerhard Wehr, “Jung” by Gerhard Wehr, Page 191
Soul: “The first light designates the Pleroma.
The second light designates Abraxas.
The third light, the sun.
The fourth light, the moon.
The fifth light, the earth.
The sixth light, the phallus.
The seventh light, the star.
Why are the bird, the heavenly mother, and heaven missing?
They are all enclosed in the star. When you look toward the star, you will look through them. They are the bridges to the star. They make up the single 7th light, the highest, the floating, which rises with roaring flapping of wings, released from the embrace of the tree of light with 6 branches and I blossom, in which the star God lay slumbering. The 6 lights are singular and form the multiplicity. The one light is one and forms the unity, it is the blossoming crown of the tree, the holy egg, the seed of the world endowed with wings so it can reach its place. The one gives rise to the many again and again, and the many entails the one.” ~Carl Jung, The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 254-255
In a critical entry of January 16, 1916, his [Jung] soul presented an elaborate thiogenic cosmogony.’
She described her own nature, the nature of the daimons, the heavenly mother, and the Gods. Of particular significance was Abraxas, the powerful and fearful self-renewing God of the cosmos.
She characterized the nature of man as striving for absolute individuality, through which he concentrated and countered the dissolution of the Pleroma, or the “all.”
Jung drew a schematic diagram of this system.
At some point later, he proceeded to paint it, and titled the work Systema Mundi Totius, system of all the worlds.
On the back of it, he wrote in English: “This is the first mandala I constructed in the year 1916, wholly unconscious of what it meant.”‘ ~The Black Books, Vol. 1, 48
He had studied the literature on Gnosticism in the course of his preparatory reading for Transformations and Symbols of the Libido. In early 1913, he read Dieterich’s Abraxas, still from the perspective of his libido theory.
In January and October 1915, while doing military service, he studied the works of the Gnostics intensively.
He was struck by the closeness of these texts and his own Liber Novus, and also with what he saw as the similarity between the modern epoch and the time of early Christianity.
After writing the Septem Sermones in the Black Books, Jung recopied it in a calligraphic script into a separate book, slightly rearranging the sequence.
He added the following inscription under the title:
“The seven instructions of the dead. Written by Basilides in Alexandria, the city where the East touches the West.”
He then had this privately printed, adding to the inscription: “Translated from the Greek original into German.”
This legend indicates the stylistic effects on Jung of late nineteenth century classical scholarship.
He recalled that he wrote it on the occasion of the founding of the Psychological Club and regarded it as a gift to Edith Rockefeller McCormick for founding the Club.
He gave copies to friends and confidants. He inscribed a copy to Adolf Keller: “This little book, that I entrust to your well meaning and friendly forbearance, brings a wish with it: it would like to have a good cover in this cold world weather./ The non-author and copyist.”
Presenting a copy to Alphonse Maeder, he wrote:
I could not presume to put my name to it, but chose instead the name of one of those great minds of the early Christian era which Christianity obliterated.
It fell quite unexpectedly into my lap like a ripe fruit at a time of great stress and has kindled a light of hope and comfort for me in my bad hours. ~The Black Books, Vol. 1, 50-51
The seventh sermon had culminated in an evocation of a star God:
At immeasurable distance a lonely star stands in the zenith. This is the one God of this one man, this is his world, his Pleroma, his divinity. In this world man is Abraxas, the creator and destroyer of his own world. This star is the God and the goal of man, this is his one guiding God, in him man goes to his rest, toward him goes the long journey of the soul after death, in him everything that man withdraws from the greater world shines resplendently. To this one God man shall pray. ~The Black Books, Vol. 1, Page 59
This description of Jung’s experience of God corresponds to the vision of Abraxas in the Sermones. The realization of the significance of the self for Jung was not only a conceptual but also an experiential matter. ~The Black Books, Vol. 1, Page 68
For example, Jung’s vision of the God Abraxas bore striking parallels to the figure of Mercurius in alchemy. ~The Black Books, Vol. 1, 108