Carl Jung on "Holy Communion" - Quotations - Carl Jung Depth Psychology

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If the patient is a practising Catholic, I invariably advise him to confess and to receive communion in order to protect himself from immediate experience, which might easily prove too much for him. ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Para 76

Thus he also held that the Communion was nothing more than a commemoration of that last supper which Jesus celebrated with his disciples, a view in which all reasonable men in every age will concur. ~Carl Jung, CW 6 Para 36

Initiations have survived among all cultures. In Greece the ancient Eleusinian mysteries were preserved, it seems, right into the seventh century of our era. Rome was flooded with mystery religions. Of these Christianity was one, and even in its present form it still preserves the old initiation ceremonies, somewhat faded and degenerated, in the rites of baptism, confirmation, and communion. Hence nobody is in a position to deny the enormous historical importance of initiations ~Carl Jung, CW 7, Para 384

This is the mingling of bread and wine, as explained by Theodore of Mopsuestia (d. 428?): “he combines them into one, whereby it is made manifest to everybody that although they are two they are virtually one.” The text at this point says: “May this mixture and consecration [commixtio et consecratio] of the body and blood of our Lord help us,” etc. The word `consecration’ may be an allusion to an original consecration by contact, though that would not clear up the contradiction since a consecration of both substances has already taken place. Attention has therefore been drawn to the old custom of holding over the sacrament from one Mass to another, the Host being dipped in wine and then preserved in softened, or mixed, form. There are numerous rites that end with minglings of this kind. Here I would only mention the consecration by water, or the mixed drink of honey and milk which the neophytes were given after communion in the Church Order of Hippolytus ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Para 334

At the time of St. Cyprian the communion was generally celebrated with water. And, still later, St. Ambrose (bishop of Milan, d. 397) says: “In the shadow there was water from the rock, as it were the blood of Christ. “In the Church Order of Hippolytus (d. c. 235) the water chalice is associated with the baptismal font, where the inner man is renewed as well as the body. This interpretation comes very close to the baptismal krater of Poimandres and to the Hermetic basin filled with nousHere the water signifies the pneuma, i.e., the spirit of prophecy, and also the doctrine which a man receives and passes on to others ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Para 313

The terrors of death on the cross are an indispensable condition for the transformation.This is in the first place a bringing to life of substances which are in themselves lifeless, and, in the second, a substantial alteration of them, a spiritualization, in accordance with the ancient conception of pneuma as a subtle material entity (the corpus glorificationis).

This idea is expressed in the concrete participation in the body and blood of Christ in the Communion. ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Para 338

It is clear, then, that in Christ’s sacrifice and the Communion one of the deepest chords in the human psyche is struck: human sacrifice and ritual anthropophagy. ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Para 339

The water communion is prefigured in John 7:37-39: “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly flow rivers of living water. (But this he spake of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Para 313

Apart from common prayer and Holy Communion, the Protestant has no ritual ceremonies at his disposal, no spiritual exercises, rosaries, pilgrimages, etc., with their expressive symbolism. He is therefore compelled to take his stand on moral ground, which puts the instinctual forces coming up from the unconscious in danger of a new repression. Any sacral action, in whatever form, works like a vessel for receiving the contents of the unconscious ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Para 543

In the Christian church the separation of the baptistry from the main body of the building derives from the same idea, for baptism as well as the communion were mysteria of which one could not speak directly. One had to use a sort of allegorical allusion so as not to betray the secrets. ~Carl Jung, CW 18, Para 255

For the Master the communion means: I give you myself, my flesh, my blood. For the disciple this means I eat the god, his flesh and blood. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 60.

Also there is a painting of the mummy case of Osiris, the god of the underworld, with wheat growing all over him, out of his body and out of the mummy case. And, you remember, the reason why the Host in the communion must consist of wheat flour is because Christ is the son of the earth. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 111

The early Christian, or probably pre-Christian, Gnostics, celebrated the communion in the presence of a snake who was supposed to be the Savior; the snake was amongst the sacred bread that was eaten, as a sort of Host. Then I have spoken of that interesting sect who believed that the Savior was the serpent on the tree in Paradise, where it gave good advice to our first parents, advice which made them conscious. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 275

So eating the snake in dreams, as well as in fantasies and visions and ceremonials, means assimilation. It is the same idea as eating the body of the Lord in the communion, in order to participate in its strength. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 276

We are very badly informed about the origin of the Mass, but some of the details were taken from the cult of Mithras-those little bells designating the particular moment of transformation, for instance. And our Communion, which seems to be quite specifically Christian, was like the one celebrated in the cult of Mithras; they also had a Communion table, and the Host, little round loaves of bread marked with a cross. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 327

There was the same idea in the fish meal of the early Christians; the astrological sign is two fishes, and the communion was then not celebrated in the present form with wine and bread, it was a meal of fish. The Christians were called fishes as well as lambs and they wore rings with a little fish or fishes engraved upon them. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 991

The dismemberment motif in the Christian myth is also beautifully suggested in that great scene belonging to the crucifixion symbolism, where the soldiers tore Christ’s garment into pieces, and then cast dice for it and divided it amongst themselves; the garment would mean his form, his shape, so it is also a sort of communion. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 1296

And the dismemberment of Zagreus by the Titans is the communion myth, it is the devouring of the totem animal; in those totemic rites the Christian dogma is anticipated. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 1296

In Western philosophy it is the so-called vas Hermeticus, which is an alchemical vessel in which transformation or transubstantiation occurs. It is the equivalent of the Christian chalice in which transubstantiation in the communion takes place. ~Carl Jung, Dream Symbols of the Individuation Process, Page 68

Of course, this is also a communion, because you eat the flesh in the Communion in order to integrate Christ into your system. You integrate the immortal, incorruptible flesh into yourself in order to transform yourself. ~Carl Jung, Dream Symbols of the Individuation Process, Page 173

Their [Christian Ophites] Christ was an apparition in the form of the serpent, and they had communion with the serpent on the table. They had a special gospel, the so-called Gospel of the Egyptians, in which there is the famous dialogue between Christ and Salome. ~Carl Jung, Dream Symbols of the Individuation Process, Page 291

In the East, the peacock plays a more unfavorable role. It is a proud Lucifer kind of bird there, self-produced, and disobedient to the creator. In the Kurd tribes there were so-called devil worshippers who worshipped the peacock as a symbol of the creative power, again the unfolding of spring. They worshipped him for the same reason that the French peasants in the thirteenth century worshipped the devil: there was a prolonged period of black plague, wars, etc., and since their prayers to the good God were perfectly useless, since he didn’t help and disaster pursued them, they began to celebrate the Black Mass-they reversed the Christian rite for the worship of Satan. That was the origin of the devil worship which still flourished in the eighteenth century. Three times the Black Mass was said for Mme. de Montespan in order to keep the love of the king, and each time they sacrificed a living child. The Mass was celebrated on the abdomen of a living woman, and the cross was reversed. Instead of wine, the blood of the slaughtered child was in the communion cup. It was the Evil One, Sheitan, the creative principle, whom they worshipped, and it was under the symbol of the peacock. Naturally it is the same peacock, spring, the sudden vision of the unfolding of beauty and form. All this material was of course not conscious to our patient. She was vaguely aware that it had some religious meaning, but what it was she did not know. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 17-18

The same idea is celebrated in the communion, where one eats the indestructible body. It is symbolized in every form and in all cults, in the worship of saints, in rubbing against the tombs of the saints, for example, and everywhere it is the same idea of contacting the archetype. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 67

I have brought photographs of the frescos in the Villa <lei Misteri, one of which I showed you last time. Women were initiated there into the mysteries of the Dionysian cult. In the first scene is Silenus, the rather fat god, a perfect wise man, drunk with the sacred wine of inspiration. He and another figure are playing the harp, the music that arouses the feeling. Here is that communion scene with the two little goats; it is a communion with the goats. The woman is to be initiated; she is receiving the inspiration that comes through communion with the animals. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 158

The great secret in the Dionysian mystery was communion with the animal in preparation for the coming of the sun, for the union with the god. For if there is nothing below, there is nothing above; where there is no shadow, there is no light. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 162

That particular ceremonial at Eleusis was performed with the purpose of establishing such a connection; it was in order to partake of the serpent’s magic power, its mana. So eating the snake in dreams, as well as in fantasies and visions and ceremonials, means assimilation. It is the same idea as eating the body of the Lord in the communion, in order to participate in its strength. That was also the original meaning of cannibalism, which was by no means instinctive; it was a magic ritual, and that is still the case wherever it prevails. Those who eat human flesh and drink human blood acquire additional human strength. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 276

And our Communion, which seems to be quite specifically Christian, was like the one celebrated in the cult of Mithras; they also had a Communion table, and the Host, little round loaves of bread marked with a cross. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 327

Therefore if a man wants to overcome a crowd, or if a king wants to rule his people, he must be swallowed by the crowd, he must give himself over to them completely, because only thus can he appear in each one of them. That truth is symbolized in the Christian communion; Christ is supposed to be literally eaten; he penetrates the darkness of everybody, and he reappears in everybody. The same idea is in the cult of Dionysus; in eating the raw flesh torn from living goats or deer, they ate the god, as he was dismembered and eaten by the Titans, and then reappeared in the titanic force of nature, thus becoming the ruler. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 360

Then god saw-mind you, this is the strange god, not the god who. was the creator of the world-that mankind struggled in vain against the evil intentions of the Demiurgos. So he sent his son again, this time as Christ, and this time he succeeded in opening people’s eyes to the fact that this world is really quite rotten, very badly made, and therefore they should liberate themselves from it. That is the reason why the Ophites, one of the Gnostic sects, worshipped the serpent as Christ, and why they had the serpent on the communion table with the bread and the wine. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 363

Yes, wine and wheat always typify the fertility of the earth, and they are also symbols in the Christian Communion, so the blood might just as well be a stream of wine. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 400

Here is the famous representation of the Manichaean communion which was celebrated with fruit-melons and grapes. The melon was the most sacred fruit because of its likeness to the sun. It was supposed to contain germs of light, so it was eaten in order to embody as many light particles as possible in oneself. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 461

In the Christian legend the soldiers cast dice for the mantle under the cross and divided it among themselves, which is only another form of the idea of the Communion where Christ is divided among the believers; in the Host he is eaten by everybody. It is the old idea of the cult of Dionysus. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 464

Well, I would say, just as we are able to eat the Host, we are able to eat the god. Eating the gods was a royal prerogative of the pharaohs, and the idea has become the most familiar religious rite, the Communion. I told you about that old text of Unas, the Egyptian king of the Fifth Dynasty, which would be about three thousand B.C. In his pyramid, his tomb, in Saqqara was found one of the most famous parts of the Book of the Dead. The text says that the king eats the small gods for his night meal, the great gods for breakfast, and the middle gods for supper, showing in that way the greatness of the king. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 465

An old cannibalistic idea becomes the central idea of the Communion, but what has been the royal prerogative is now a rite for practically everybody. The god is not only killed, he is also assimilated; he is dismembered, divided into the smallest parts, and eaten, distributed among the crowd. So he disappears, but he reappears in everybody’s heart, as Dionysus appears again in Zeus, the supreme god, and becomes a god again. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 466

You remember in our patient’s vision the theme of something growing up from below; after she had partaken of the wine and so entered into communion with the earth, the tree grew up from the pedestal where the bull had stood, and the birds appeared, and then followed the symbol of the lion. Here we have an alchemistic parallel. A tree is growing out of the head of a naked woman and birds are flying about. She is standing upon an alchemistic contrivance, a sort of oven over a fire, upon which is the retort and the alembic, a distillation apparatus; out of the crude matter the spirit is extracted by distillation, the volatile substance out of the mineral. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 497

Imagine a real taurobolium-real blood dropping down upon one! It was terribly barbarous. And a horrible idea underlies our Christian communion; taken literally, it is a feast of cannibals. The doctrine of transubstantiation forces one to believe that it is really the blood and the flesh. But that is too heavy, too earthbound, and that is what our patient is criticizing. Then she says: “When I had spoken all the communicants arose and followed me.” ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 702

Therefore in the Mithraic cult the bread, the pharmakon athanasias, the medicine of immortality, is also imprinted with the sign of the cross, meaning that it is sun, it is a sun-wheel, a mandala. And so in the Christian communion, when one eats that white body which produces the spiritual life within, one eats the sun; it is of course the reverse process, but out of it grows spiritual renewal, the spiritual birth. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 840

This is an anti-Christian meal, the Christian communion but reversed. It is not what is ahead or above that is to be assimilated-the thing that is greater, more differentiated, higher-but the thing that is lower, less differentiated, more ancient. This is to be reintegrated and thus brought back into life again, for the purpose of destroying the highly differentiated historical condition which we call the Christian age. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 992

We return thus to exceedingly archaic ideas of cannibalism, and to old Egyptian ideas. The Pharaoh was supposed to eat the small gods for breakfast, the middle gods for luncheon, and for dinner the great gods. In other words, he drew all the gods into himself. This Egyptian idea is at the base of the ideology and the symbolism of the communion. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 1161

The Marcionites were a somewhat later development of the so called Ophites, a sect, probably of pre-Christian origin, that worshipped the redeemer in the form of a serpent and celebrated the communion with a real serpent. The original pagan Ophites represented the snake as the king cobra with the inflated neck, but later on it lost that terrible poisonous aspect. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 1223

Then when the Ophites became Christian, they still celebrated their communion with the snake: it was in a basket on the communion table, and it symbolized the Messiah. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 1223

The communion itself is a dismemberment, Christ is dismembered into innumerable parts; by his own volition he is present in the Host and in the wine and he is eaten in that form. And the dismemberment of Zagreus by the Titans is the communion myth, it is the devouring of the totem animal; in those totemic rites the Christian dogma is anticipated. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 1296

The breaking up or the dismemberment is part of the ritual of the mystery cults. It is the communion ritual, the breaking of the bread, and the distribution of the mantle, and the tearing to pieces of the living flesh in the Dionysian mysteries. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 1305