Fate, Death, and Renewal
What is it, in the end, that induces a man to go his own way and to rise out of unconscious identity with the mass as out of a swathing mist?
Not necessity, for necessity comes to many, and they all take refuge in convention. Not moral decision, for nine times out of ten we decide for convention likewise.
What is it, then, that inexorably tips the scales in favour of the extra-ordinary}
It is what is commonly called vocation: an irrational factor that destines a man to emancipate himself from the herd and from its wellworn paths.
True personality is always a vocation and puts its trust in it as in God, despite its being, as the ordinary man would say, only a personal feeling.
But vocation acts like a law of God from which there is no escape.
The fact that many a man who goes his own way ends in ruin means nothing to one who has a vocation.
He must obey his own law, as if it were a daemon whispering to him of new and wonderful paths.
Anyone with a vocation hears the voice of the inner man: he is called. 21:299/
Much indeed can be attained by the will, but, in view of the fate of certain markedly strong-willed personalities, it is a fundamental error to try to subject our own fate at all costs to our will.
Our will is a function regulated by reflection; hence it is dependent on the quality of that reflection.
This, if it really is reflection, is supposed to be rational, i.e., in accord with reason. But has it ever been shown, or will it ever be, that life and fate are in accord with reason, that they too are rational?
We have on the contrary good grounds for supposing that they are irrational, or rather that in the last resort they are grounded beyond human reason. io4a:72
We cannot rate reason highly enough, but there are times when we must ask ourselves: do we really know enough about the destinies of individuals to entitle us to give good advice under all circumstances?
Certainly we must act according to our best convictions, but are we so sure that our convictions are for the best as regards the other person?
Very often we do not know what is best for ourselves, and in later years we may occasionally thank God from the bottom of our hearts that his kindly hand has preserved us from the “reasonableness” of our former plans.
It is easy for the critic to say after the event, “Ah, but then it wasn’t the right sort of reason!”
Who can know with unassailable certainty when he has the right sort?
Moreover, is it not essential to the true art of living, sometimes, in defiance of all reason and fitness, to include the unreasonable and the unfitting within the ambiance of the possible? 77:462
Reason must always seek the solution in some rational, consistent, logical way, which is certainly justifiable enough in all normal situations but is entirely inadequate when it comes to the really great and decisive questions.
It is incapable of creating the symbol because the symbol is irrational.
When the rational way proves to be a cul de sac—as it always does after a time—the solution comes from the side it was least expected. 69:438
We distinctly resent the idea of invisible and arbitrary forces, for it is not so long ago that we made our escape from that frightening world of dreams and superstitions, and constructed for ourselves a picture of the cosmos worthy of our rational consciousness—that latest and greatest achievement of man.
We are now surrounded by a world that is obedient to rational laws. It is true that we do not know the causes of everything, but in time they will be discovered, and these discoveries will accord with our reasoned expectations.
There are, to be sure, also chance occurrences, but they are merely accidental, and we do not doubt that they have a causaUty of their own.
Chance happenings are repellent to the mind that loves order.
They disturb the regular, predictable course of events in the most absurd and irritating way.
We resent them as much as we resent invisible, arbitrary forces, for they remind us too much of Satanic imps or of the caprice of a deus ex machina.
They are the worst enemies of our careful calculations and a continual threat to all our undertakings.
Being admittedly contrary to reason, they deserve all our abuse, and yet we should not fail to give them their due. 9:113
What if there were a living agency beyond our everyday human world—something even more purposeful than electrons ?
Do we delude ourselves in thinking that we possess and control our own psyches, and is what science calls the “psyche” not just a question-mark arbitrarily confined within the skull, but rather a door that opens upon the human world from a world beyond, allowing unknown and mysterious powers to act upon man and carry him on the wings of the night to a more than personal destiny . 73:148
“The stars of thine own fate lie in thy breast,” says Seni to Wallenstein—a dictum that should satisfy all astrologers if we knew even a little about the secrets of the heart.
But for this, so far, men have had little understanding. Nor would I dare to assert that things are any better today. 10:9
Whether primitive or not, mankind always stands on the brink of actions it performs itself but does not control.
The whole world wants peace and the whole world prepares for war, to take but one example. Mankind is powerless. ~Carl Jung, Psychological Reflections, Page 319-321
Key to Sources:
In this new edition, all but relatively few of the quotations are taken from the Collected Works of C. G. Jung, published by Princeton University Press under the sponsorship of Bollingen Foundation,! and by Routledge & Kegan Paul, Ltd., London.
Each quotation is followed by a double reference number.
The first part of the number indicates the book or essay given in the numbered List of Sources (pages 369 ff.) ; the second indicates the paragraph of the relevant volume in the Collected Works.
Thus the first quotation on page 3 is numbered 67: 187, 67 referring to “Psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype,” and 187 to he paragraph in Volume 9, Part I: The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. ~Carl Jung, Psychological Reflections, Page xv
