Posted by Tamara Long on March 27, 2011 at 11:55am
"I speak because the spirit robs me of joy and life if I do not speak." (230) Because I find this to be so true for me, I want to invite all of us to speak to how the spirit of the depths enriches our lives. How does it speak to you? How does Red Book exploration deepen the conversation?
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We get an inkling of what we are in for when we look at the image Jung uses to open this chapter in the high German script at the beginning of the Red Book. The depths of the ocean are portrayed as dark and fecund. There is a fish, a crowned serpent arising from a fire and a lone sailing boat with red flag sailing the seas before the picturesque town.
The spirit of the depths and the spirit of the times are both in parallel and stark contrast.
The quote that speaks to me is this one:-
p229 ..the melting together of sense and nonsense produces the supreme meaning.
So far in reading the Red Book I've needed to remind myself I don't have to understand everything since there is as much nonsense as sense in it and that's just the way it is. This is also true of my life.
Tamara Long > David O'RoseMarch 28, 2011 at 3:08pm
Thanks for the reminder to go back into the German to appreciate the amazing illustrations that accompany the text. Sometimes I get so caught up in the reading, I forget. The footnotes, which I also sometimes pass over, are also very rich and add yet more richness and depth.
This is also true for me, Tamara. There's no way to live our lives by another's leave. Even though my opinions make others unhappy along the way--and I am programmed from childhood to be pleasing--I have found that if I try to take the safe route my experience of life feels flat and dry. It is a real conundrum! I've spent many years trying to disconnect my words from how I perceive that others will hear them.
There are two other quotes only a few pages further along that I love, too:
"My soul leads me into the desert, into the desert of my own self . . . The journey leads through hot sand, slowly wading without a visible goal to hope for . . . I take my way step by step, and do not know how long my journey will last." (P. 235)
A second one, only a page later:
"When I turned my desire away from [men, things and] my thoughts, my self became a desert where only the sun of unquiet desire burned. I was overwhelmed by the endless infertility of this desert. Even if something could have thrived there, the creative power of desire was absent. Wherever the creative power of desire is, their springs the soil's own seed. But do not forget to wait . . . Nobody can spare [himself] the waiting and most will be unable to bear this torment but will throw themselves with greed back at men, things and thoughts, whole slaves they will become from then on. [Men, things and thoughts] will become his master . . . since he cannot be without them, not until even his soul has become a fruitful field. Also he whose soul is a garden needs things, men and thoughts, but he is their friend, not their fool and slave. (P. 236)
Tamara Long > Dorene MahoneyMarch 28, 2011 at 9:05am
You've nailed that one, Dorene. 'Cause of course we DO have to consider our impact on others but at the same time, I need to make a practice of checking my motives to make sure that I'm communicating from my heart (my truth) and not my conditioned response of what is the "right" thing to say that will create a situation in which both I and the other person feels safe. If my main goal is safety and comfort, I'm simply avoiding the desert of "hot sand". I find myself guilty at times of trying to "spare myself the waiting", wanting as Jung later says "everything to fall into my lap ripe and finished"!
Replies
We get an inkling of what we are in for when we look at the image Jung uses to open this chapter in the high German script at the beginning of the Red Book. The depths of the ocean are portrayed as dark and fecund. There is a fish, a crowned serpent arising from a fire and a lone sailing boat with red flag sailing the seas before the picturesque town.
The spirit of the depths and the spirit of the times are both in parallel and stark contrast.
The quote that speaks to me is this one:-
p229 ..the melting together of sense and nonsense produces the supreme meaning.
So far in reading the Red Book I've needed to remind myself I don't have to understand everything since there is as much nonsense as sense in it and that's just the way it is. This is also true of my life.
There are two other quotes only a few pages further along that I love, too:
"My soul leads me into the desert, into the desert of my own self . . . The journey leads through hot sand, slowly wading without a visible goal to hope for . . . I take my way step by step, and do not know how long my journey will last." (P. 235)
A second one, only a page later:
"When I turned my desire away from [men, things and] my thoughts, my self became a desert where only the sun of unquiet desire burned. I was overwhelmed by the endless infertility of this desert. Even if something could have thrived there, the creative power of desire was absent. Wherever the creative power of desire is, their springs the soil's own seed. But do not forget to wait . . . Nobody can spare [himself] the waiting and most will be unable to bear this torment but will throw themselves with greed back at men, things and thoughts, whole slaves they will become from then on. [Men, things and thoughts] will become his master . . . since he cannot be without them, not until even his soul has become a fruitful field. Also he whose soul is a garden needs things, men and thoughts, but he is their friend, not their fool and slave. (P. 236)