In Memory of Marie-Louise von Franz by Edward F. Edinger
IN MEMORY OF MARIE-LOUISE VON FRANZ by EDWARD F. EDINGER
It is a sad task for me to write farewell remarks about Marie-Louise von Franz.
Next to Jung himself she has exemplified for me what individuation is and what it means to be conscious.
I first met her in the fifties when she would come to New York to give seminars on such things as fairy tales and the “Sapientia Dei” in the Aurora Consurgens.
With the exception of Jung, I probably learned more about the psyche from her than from any other person.
I was impressed by her brilliant intellect, her erudition, her uncanny intuition, and, later, by her profoundly human responses to feeling issues of depth.
As I got to know her better it was her total personality that had the greatest impact—the magnitude of her consciousness.
“Individuation” and “consciousness” are the goals of Jungian psychology, but they are very hard to define.
Given our competitive instincts it is even difficult to acknowledge these accomplishments when we encounter them in others.
At present we have no reliable way to measure objectively the magnitude of an individual’s consciousness.
And yet clearly differences in size of consciousness do exist.
In my judgment Jung’s level of consciousness was and is without peer.
After his death Dr. von Franz took over for me that premier position among the living.
Her relation to Jung was extraordinary.
She was his true spiritual daughter.
Although thoroughly her own person and in no sense identified with him, she submitted herself to the full impact of Jung’s magisterial consciousness and allowed herself to be transformed by it.
Like the Philosopher’s Stone, “Jungian consciousness” underwent a multiplicatio and reproduced itself in her.
As a result she took on Jung’s most important quality, a profound commitment to the transpersonal Self.
Our understanding of the collective unconscious teaches us that the collective psyche is a continuum connecting all the members of our species.
Given this fact, it seems likely that those carriers of a large consciousness serve an “Atlas function,” supporting the world of collective consciousness and assuring the continuity of civilization.
When one of these “great ones” dies, the psychic Continuum is torn, exposing us to eruptions from the depths.
“Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened . . .” (Matt 27:5l NKJV).
In my view Dr. von Franz’s consciousness was of this order.
Her death has torn a hole in the world psyche. It is a dangerous gap that will be hard to fill. ~Edward F. Edinger, Psychological Perspectives, Vol. 52, Issue 1, 2009
Edward F. Edinger: Redemption of the Captive Soul.
Living Psyche: A Jungian Analysis in Pictures Psychotherapy
The Awakening in the Whore House
Description: (from a dream) I descend to the basement of a whore house run by a brutal man.
I discover a bruised and battered young woman who nevertheless had a glowing beauty.
I kiss her and awaken her.
I am overcome momentarily with a sense of compassion for her, for me, for the pathos of the human condition.
The tough owner stands at the top of the staircase.
Comment: This image expresses the basic idea of analysis-descent into the unconscious to redeem the captive soul.
There are many examples-the fairy tale of “Sleeping Beauty,” Orpheus and Eurydice and, most profound of all, the Gnostic myth of Sophia caught in the dark embrace of matter. [48]
In the Pistis Sophia we read that Sophia looked down from her world of light onto the dark world and saw light in it.
She thought it to be part of the higher heavenly light but actually it came from the “Self-willed,” the rebellious one.
So she was seduced
“and came into the regions of the chaos and drew nigh to that lion-faced light-power to devour it.
But all the material emanations of Self-willed surrounded her, and the great lion-faced light-power devoured all the light-powers in Sophia . . . and her matter was thrust into chaos. . . .”
And Pistis Sophia cried out most exceedingly, she cried to the Light of Lights which she had seen from the beginning. . . . “Save me, O Light, for evil thoughts have entered into me.” [49] ~Edward F. Edinger, The Living Psyche, Page 91.
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