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For Jung, the Assumptio was a sign of the times pointing toward the equality of women, women’s rights, and how this equality had been finally and officially raised to the metaphysical realm in the figure of the divine woman. ~Rafael Monzo, Homage to MLVF, Page 413
For Jung, this dogma [Assumption of Mary] completed St. John’s apocalyptic marriage of the lamb and referred as well to the coniunctio of the heavenly bride and heavenly bridegroom prophesied in the day of judgment. ~Rafael Monzo, Homage to MLVF, Page 414
And as we leave the zodiac, we must just mention the fact that the heavenly assumption of the Virgin is celebrated by Catholics in the middle of August just as the sun passes out of Leo. ~Barbara Hannah, Archetypal Symbolism of Animals
There is great excitement in the Catholic church and much discussion about the new dogma.
I am just reading about it.
The pope has caught them neatly at their own game of fostering creeds that have no foundation in the scriptures. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Page 32
This dogma [Assumption] is in every respect timely. In the first place it is a symbolical fulfilment of John’s vision. Secondly, it contains an allusion to the marriage of the Lamb at the end of time, and, thirdly, it repeats the Old Testament anamnesis of Sophia. These three references foretell the incarnation of God. The second and third foretell the Incarnation in Christ, but the first foretells the Incarnation in creaturely man. ~Barbara Hannah, Jung: His Life and His Work, Page 218
The myth goes on, now as before, as the Assumptio proves, which obviously belongs to the Christian world of ideas and not to that of Islam or Buddhism. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 67
If Christianity claims to be a monotheism, it becomes unavoidable to assume the opposites as being contained in God. But then we are confronted with a major religious problem: the problem of Job. It is the aim of my booklet to point out its historical evolution since the time of Job down through the centuries to the most recent symbolic phenomena like the Assumptio Mariae, etc. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 282
A physical fact never proves the existence and reality of the spirit. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Page 567.
And as we leave the zodiac, we must just mention the fact that the heavenly assumption of the Virgin is celebrated by Catholics in the middle of August just as the sun passes out of Leo. ~Barbara Hannah, Archetypal Symbolism of Animals.
For a long time there had been a psychological need for this, as is evident from the medieval pictures of the Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin; it was also responsible for elevating her to the position of mediatrix, corresponding to Christ’s position as the mediator, with the difference that Mary only transmits grace but does not generate it. ~Carl Jung, CW 14, Para 237
This is not a “scientific” book [Answer to Job] but a personal confrontation with the traditional Christian world view, occasioned by the impact of the new dogma of the Assumption. ~Carl Jung, CW 18, Page 662
The union of the spiritual, masculine principle with the feminine, psychic principle is far from being just a fantasy of the Gnostics: it has found an echo in the Assumption of the Virgin, in the union of Tifereth and Malchuth, and in Goethe’s “the Eternal Feminine leads us upward and on.” ~Carl Jung, CW 14, Para 327
Not only are Isis and the Horus-child iconological exemplars [the Virgin Mary and her child], but the ascension of Semele, the originally mortal mother of Dionysus, likewise anticipates the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin ~Carl Jung, CW 9i, Para 195.
The dogma of the Assumption is a slap in the face for the historical and rationalistic view of the world and would remain so for all time if one were to insist obstinately on the arguments of reason and history. ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Para 754
[About the Assumption of the Virgin Mary] Jung said that she has already entered into the nuptial chamber and that thus, naturally, after a time there will be a child. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with Jung, Page 15
Jung gave great importance to the papal bull of the Assumptio Maria. He held that it “points to the hieros gamos in the pleroma, and this in turn implies, as we have said, the future birth of the divine child, who, in accordance with the divine trend toward incarnation, will choose as his birthplace the empirical man. This metaphysical process is known as the individuation process in the psychology of the unconscious” ~Liber Novus, Footnote 200, Page 299.
Now that the Catholic Church has taken the momentous step of the assumption, Protestantism is really and truly nailed fast to the Patriarchal line of the Old Testament and way behindhand in the matter of dogmatic development. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 9-10.
You are quite right; with the dogma of the Assumptio the unconscious “wells into the Church,” since Woman is its (the unconscious) representative on earth. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 230-232.
The anima is a representative of the unconscious and hence a mediatrix, just as the Beata Virgo is called “mediatrix” in the dogma of the Assumption. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 423-424
If the miracle of the Assumptio is not a living and present spiritual event, but consists of a physical phenomenon that is reported or only believed to have happened some 2000 years ago, then it has nothing to do with the spirit, or just as little as any parapsychological stunt of today. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Pages 566-568
It is more than probable that the idea of the Assumptio did not begin its real life in apostolic times but considerably later. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Pages 566-568
The miracle of the Assumptio obviously began to operate noticeably from the VI century onwards only. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Pages 566-568
If the Assumptio means anything, it means a spiritual fact which can be formulated as the integration of the female principle into the Christian conception of the Godhead. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Pages 566-568
If the Assumptio is an essentially concrete historical fact, then it is no more a living spiritual experience. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Pages 566-568
If we designate the Assumptio as a fact in time and space we ought to add that it happens really in eternity and everywhere, and what we perceive of it through our senses is corruptible matter, i.e., we don’t see it, but we infer or believe in the idea. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Pages 566-568
[About the Assumption of the Virgin Mary] Jung said that she has already entered into the nuptial chamber and that thus, naturally, after a time there will be a child. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with Jung, Page 15
The dogma of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, promulgated by Pope Pius XII in 1950, contains several allusions to the “heavenly marriage,” thus proving how the unconscious world of images reasserts its timeless significance as a dark counterpart to the spiritual world of Christianity. ~Carl Jung, Jung’s Last Years, Page 68.
Pope Pius XII recognized this truth and, apparently moved by the spirit, proclaimed-much to the astonishment of the rationalists-the transcendental declaratio solemnis of the new dogma of the Assumptio Mariae.1Incidentally, he himself is rumored to have had several visions of the Mother of God on the occasion of the declaration. ~Rafael Monzo, Homage to MLVF, Page 414
C. G. Jung considered the corporeal assumption of Mary the most significant Christian religious event since the Reformation. ~Rafael Monzo, Homage to MLVF, Page 413
When the alchemistic current ceased, the archetype itself seems to have moved Pope Pius XII, impressed by the many dreams and visions of simple people, to produce a new blossom on the Christian surface which even raises a symbol of matter—Mother Mary’s body—to the level of the Godhead. ~Barbara Hannah, Jung: His Life and His Work, Page 228
Jung never tired of pointing out the vital importance of the new dogma, and in Mysterium Coniunctionis he went into it particularly deeply. For example, he said that for more than a thousand years, the alchemists prepared the ground for the dogma of the Assumption, which is:
“. . .really a wedding feast, the Christian version of the hierosgamos, whose originally incestuous nature played a great role in alchemy. The traditional incest always indicated that the supreme union of opposites expressed a combination of things which are related but of unlike nature. . . . Alchemy throws a bright light on the background of the dogma, for the new article of faith expressed in symbolic form exactly what the adepts recognized as being the secret of their conjunctio. The correspondence is indeed so great that the old Masters could legitimately have declared that the new dogma has written the Hermetic secret in the skies. ~Barbara Hannah, Jung: His Life and His Work, Page 228-229
That is the programme for the Christian Aeon which must be fulfilled before God can incarnate in the creaturely man.
Only in the last days will the vision of the sun-woman be fulfilled.
In recognition of this truth, and evidently inspired by the workings of the Holy Ghost, the Pope has recently announced the dogma of the Assumptio Mariae, very much to the astonishment of all rationalists.
Mary as the bride is united with the son in the heavenly bridal chamber, and, as Sophia, with the Godhead. ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Para 713
Looked at from a strictly Catholic point of view I make very heretical statements indeed; but there are plenty of reformers that have done the same thing, including the present Pope, declaring the dogma without the slightest apostolic authority and without the consent even of his own Church, which has emphatically resisted any such declaration during at least the 600 years of its early history. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 335
This is naturally also the case when the ultimate principle is called “matter.”
Only the totally naive think this is the opposite of “myth.”
Materia is in the end simply a chthonic mother goddess, and the late Pope seems to have had an inkling of this. (Cf. the second Encyclical to the dogma of the Assumption!) ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 485
My defence of the Marian dogma is certainly an unexpected joke in the world’s history, but one with a significant background.
Also, the Pope’s latest Encyclical on the Regina et Domina omnis creaturae is uncommonly important in view of coming developments.
Moreover there is an intimation in it of that little door through which the co-Redemptrix can one day enter (participationem filii sui efficacitas habens).
I would give anything to know the innermost thoughts of the Holy Father . . . ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 196
Boldly breaking through the sacrosanct rule about the definability of a new dogmatic truth, viz., that the said truth is only defi.nibilis inasmuch as it was believed and taught in apostolic times, explicite or implicite, the pope has declared the Assumptio Mariae a dogma of the Christian creed.
The justification he relies on is the pious belief of the masses for more than 1000 years, which he considers sufficient proof of the work of the Holy Ghost.
Obviously the “pious belief” of the masses continues the process of projection, i.e., of transformation of human situations into myth. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 206
‘The Pope probably did well to discourage the psychologizing tendency (chiefly among the French Jesuits).
The Trojan horse should be kept hidden as long as possible.
All in all, I consider the declaration of the Assumption the most important symbological event since the Reformation, and I find the arguments advanced by Protestant critics lamentable because they all overlook the prodigious significance of the new dogma. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 8
But anyone who has followed with attention the visions of Mary which have been increasing in number over the last few decades, and has taken their psychological significance into account, might have known what was brewing.
The fact, especially, that it was largely children who had the visions might have given pause for thought, for in such cases the collective unconscious is always at work.
Incidentally, the Pope himself is rumoured to have had several visions of the Mother of God on the occasion of the declaration.
One could have known for a long time that there was a deep longing in the masses for an intercessor and mediatrix who would at last take her place alongside the Holy Trinity and be received as the “Queen of Heaven and Bride at the heavenly court.”
For more than a thousand years it had been taken for granted that the Mother of God dwelt there, and we know from the Old Testament that Sophia was with God before the creation.
From, the ancient Egyptian theology of the divine Pharaohs we know that God wants to become man by means of a human mother, and it was recognized even in prehistoric times that the primordial divine being is both male and female.
But such a truth eventuates in time only when it is solemnly proclaimed or rediscovered. It is psychologically significant for our day that in the year 1950 the heavenly bride was united with the bridegroom.
In order to interpret this event, one has to consider not only the arguments adduced by the Papal Bull, but the prefigurations in the apocalyptic marriage of the Lamb and in the Old Testament anamnesis of Sophia.
The nuptial union in the thalamus (bridal-chamber) signifies the hieros gamos, and this in turn is the first step towards incarnation, towards the birth of the saviour who, since antiquity, was thought of as the filius solis et lunae, the films sapientiae, and the equivalent of Christ.
When, therefore, a longing for the exaltation of the Mother of God passes through the people, this tendency, if thought to its logical conclusion, means the desire for the birth of a saviour, a peacemaker, a “mediator pacem faciens inter inimicos.”
Although he is already born in the pleroma, his birth in time can only be accomplished when it is perceived, recognized, and declared by man. ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Para 748
It is chiefly my experiences in the latter field which have given me the courage to enter into the discussion of the religious question and especially into the pros and cons of the dogma of the Assumption—which, by the way, I consider to be the most important religious event since the Reformation.
It is a petra scandali for the unpsychological mind: how can such an unfounded assertion as the bodily reception of the Virgin into heaven be put forward as worthy of belief?
But the method which the Pope uses in order to demonstrate the truth of the dogma makes sense to the psychological mind, because it bases itself firstly on the necessary prefigurations, and secondly on a tradition of religious assertions reaching back for more than a thousand years.
Clearly, the material evidence for the existence of this psychic phenomenon is more than sufficient.
It does not matter at all that a physically impossible fact is asserted, because all religious assertions are physical impossibilities.
If they were not so, they would, as I said earlier, necessarily be treated in the text-books of natural science. ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Para 752
It is chiefly my experiences in the latter field which have given me the courage to enter into the discussion of the religious question and especially into the pros and cons of the dogma of the Assumption—which, by the way, I consider to be the most important religious event since the Reformation.
It is a petra scandali for the unpsychological mind: how can such an unfounded assertion as the bodily reception of the Virgin into heaven be put forward as worthy of belief?
But the method which the Pope uses in order to demonstrate the truth of the dogma makes sense to the psychological mind, because it bases itself firstly on the necessary prefigurations, and secondly on a tradition of religious assertions reaching back for more than a thousand years.
Clearly, the material evidence for the existence of this psychic phenomenon is more than sufficient.
It does not matter at all that a physically impossible fact is asserted, because all religious assertions are physical impossibilities.
If they were not so, they would, as I said earlier, necessarily be treated in the text-books of natural science. ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Para 752
Only in 1950, after the teaching authority in the Church had long deferred it, and almost a century after the declaration of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, did the Pope, moved by a growing wave of popular petitions, feel compelled to declare the Assumption as a revealed truth.
All the evidence shows that the dogmatization was motivated chiefly by the religious need of the Catholic masses.
Behind this stands the archetypal numen of feminine deity, who, at the Council of Ephesus in 431, imperiously announced her claim to the title of “Theotokos” (God-bearer), as distinct from that of a mere “Anthropotokos” (man-bearer) accorded to her by the Nestorian rationalists. ~Carl Jung, CW 14, Para 237
The motive and content of the popular movement which contributed to the Pope’s decision solemnly to declare the new dogma consist not in the birth of a new god, but in the continuing incarnation of God which began with Christ.
Arguments based on historical criticism will never do justice to the new dogma; on the contrary, they are as lamentably wide of the mark as are the unqualified fears to which the English archbishops have given expression.
In the first place, the declaration of the dogma has changed nothing in principle in the Catholic ideology as it has existed for more than a thousand years; and in the second place, the failure to understand that God has eternally wanted to become man, and for that purpose continually incarnates through the Holy Ghost in the temporal sphere, is an alarming symptom and can only mean that the Protestant standpoint has lost ground by not understanding the signs of the times and by ignoring the continued operation of the Holy Ghost.
This is obviously out of touch with the tremendous archetypal happenings in the psyche of the individual and the masses, and with the symbols which are intended to compensate the truly apocalyptic world situation today.
It seems to have succumbed to a species of rationalistic historicism and to have lost any understanding of the Holy Ghost who works in the hidden places of the soul.
It can therefore neither understand nor admit a further revelation of the divine drama. ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Para 749
The Assumption is at least an important step forward in Christian symbolism.
This evolution will be completed when the dogma of the Co-Redemptrix is reached.
But the main problem will not be solved, although one pair of opposites (8 and 9) has been smuggled into the divine wholeness.
Thus the Catholic Church (in the person of the Pope) has at least seen fit to take the Marianic movement in the masses, i.e., a psychological fact, so seriously that he did not hesitate to give up the time-hallowed principle of apostolic authority. ~Carl Jung, CW 18, Para 1607
Declaration of the Virgin’s right to the title of Theotokos (“God-bearer”) at the Council of Ephesus in 431, and definition of the Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX in 1854. ~Editor, CW 14, Page 523, fn 219
