Isn't this a lovely quote from Jung on Dreams from the Red Book?

Posted by Dorene Mahoney on February 27, 2011 at 12:55pm

From Soul and God, Chapter 2 of Liber Primus (page 233 of the Red Book)

 

I must learn that the dregs of my thought, my dreams, are the speech of my soul. I must carry them in my heart, and go back and forth over them in my mind, like the words of the person dearest to me. Dreams are the guiding words of the soul. Why should I henceforth not love my dreams and not make their riddling images into objects of my daily consideration? You think that the dream is foolish and ungainly. What is beautiful? What is ungainly? What is clever? What is foolish? The spirit of this time is your measure but the spirit of the depths surpasses it at both ends. Only the spirit of this time knows the difference between large and small. But this difference is invalid, like the spirit which recognizes it.

 

The spirit of the depths even taught me to consider my action and my decision as dependent on dreams. Dreams pave the way for life, and they determine you without you understanding their language. One would like to learn this language, but who can teach and learn it? Scholarliness alone is not enough; there is a knowledge of the heart that gives deeper insight. The knowledge of the heart is in no book and is not to be found in the mouth of any teacher, but grows out of you like the green seed from the dark earth. Scholarliness belongs to the spirit of this time, but this spirit in no way grasps the dream, since the soul is everywhere that scholarly knowledge is not.

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Replies

  • Ruth Martin April 11, 2011 at 2:47pm

    Katrina, would you share with us re: the videos you've watched, and what you are reading, and where we can find them?

    Thanks, 

    Ruth

  • Ruth Martin April 11, 2011 at 2:41pm
    This is so beautiful, his conversation with himself! Can't you just feel his open heart in this soliloquy, as well as his certainty that another piece of the puzzle had become clear.  "...It grows out of you like the green seed from the dark earth."  Wonderful organic image to remember when I work with clients.  The seed sprouts in the clients' time.
  • Julie Ann Perkins February 27, 2011 at 10:12pm

    Dorene - THANK YOU for posting this great quote!  I feel reinforced in that inner effort of paying attention to the reveries, dream images and knowings that flit across my awareness, only to exit 'stage left' if I don't make some kind of note of them before judging them with my daylight mind, or that energy is gone, back down into the depths...

    Right now, especially like this line: The knowledge of the heart is in no book and is not to be found in the mouth of any teacher, but grows out of you like the green seed from the dark earth.


     


  • Dorene Mahoney February 27, 2011 at 3:20pm
    All true, Defer! I love that Beatles song, as well, although when it was current I had no inkling of Jung or Depth Psychology. Isn't it wonderful that there are some things that wear and deepen over time?
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