That was an encounter with the daemonism of the earth,
Carl Jung Depth Psychology Facebook Group
Dear Count, 13 August 1931
First I must ask you to forgive me for not reacting earlier to your interesting MS [part of South American Meditations].
It is rich and significant in content.
You are inaugurating a new and contemporary style of “sentimental journey”, though it is considerably bloodier than its predecessors.
South America has also brought you face to face, plainly and honestly, with the dark underworld, the chthonic unconscious.
It is a classic case of the collective unconscious being constellated by the activation of the inferior function, which because of its contamination with the contents of the collective unconscious always drags this up with it.
Simultaneously the anima emerges in exemplary fashion from the primeval slime, laden with all the pulpy and monstrous appendages of the deep.
And outside, conjured up by her appearance inside, Victoria Ocampo is forced into your magic circle – a meaningful adventure whose continuation arouses my curiosity!
That was an encounter with the daemonism of the earth, and it has never yet been described better.
I wish you all luck with the continuation, but would advise you to cut down on “cultural speculation” as much as possible, otherwise you will blur what is most impressive about your work the personal experience with its exemplary subjectivity.
I hope you are all right in health.
With best regards,
Yours sincerely,
C. G. Jung [The Correspondence of Victoria Ocampo, Count Keyserling and C G Jung Page 94-95]
Carl Jung Depth Psychology Blog