They say that, the red book? Carl Jung contains the alchemy of a spirit that longed to travel to the underworld to save his soul. We are faced with an enigmatic and fascinating intellectual heritage, holy grail of the unconscious for many and, for others, the work of a madman who at one point has come to repudiate humanity.
If there is a mystery to be solved in the world of psychology, it is this manuscript that Carl Gustav Jung wrote between 1914 and 1930. It is an unfinished work, a book between the prophetic, the mystical and the psychological; In addition, it contains impressive illustrations, where deities are mistaken for ancient demons.
- “The spirit of my day advanced and dropped enormous volumes containing all my knowledge before me.
- Were its pages mineral.
- ? Red Book -Carl Jung-.
Few have dared to give a logical and rational explanation of what the father of analytical psychology meant with his Liber Novus, however, perhaps he wanted nothing, perhaps he should not look with scientific eyes and objectives at the work that could actually be explained as a cathartic exercise, a personal therapy with which he allowed his mental demons to be freed in a moment of existential crisis.
Maybe it was that and nothing else. However, there is one thing to note: after Jung’s death, the family kept this manuscript secretly and secretly in a house in Kusnacht, on the outskirts of Zurich, no one should approach this work, not even the researchers and their Jungian companions. 1984, The Red Book or Liber Novus was transferred to a bank. Only in 2009 did Ulrich Hoerni, Jung’s grandson, authorize the publication of the same thing. A long-awaited event that left the experts speechless?
This spiritual strength has subjected the pride and pride of my capacity for discernment, took my faith in science, stripped me of the satisfaction of understanding and order of things, and let the devotion to the ideals of our century die in me. to the simplest, most precious and basic things. Liber Novus -Carl Jung-
This is one of the paragraphs of Carl Jung’s first chapter. For those who know his work, and who have not yet had the opportunity to read this book, it is important to say that the first thing they will experience is strangeness, contradiction. and the feeling of having an often wild world. It is almost like a bible of the sacred and the profane, bound in red leather and inhabited by beautiful cream-colored scrolls flooded with golden letters.
It is interesting to note that at the time of its publication, many Jungians, such as Andrew Samuels, were quick to state that Jung did not suffer from any mental disorder; there are those who dare to say that this work is only the result of a psychotic break that Jung suffered in his differences with Freud.
That’s not what it’s about. In fact, what Carl Jung had was a deep personal crisis and the beginning of a new stage in his life that initiated further intellectual development. This manuscript began to be written in 1914, just at the end of World War I, when this Swiss physician and psychiatrist experienced a deep disappointment at humanity and an almost brazen skepticism about the scientific rationalism of his time.
The red book is first and foremost a diary. The difficulty we find in deciphering this entire network of symbols, world codes and auto-alchemy is due, therefore, to the simple fact that no one can crush or dissect this body that constitutes the spirit of others, and much less if that spirit belongs to one of the best representatives of the dream universe.
In these pages Jung explores his own psyche, his relationship with the unconscious and all the deep architecture of which he was, of course, a privileged explorer, used a psychonautic technique to shape each page, he did so with an active imagination of meditation, allowing images to flow and form illustrations and descriptions.
Thus, a whole set of archetypes emerged that would later develop, and also emerged their darkest universes, the shadows that we do not want to recognize as their own, but that also constitute our true being.
A curious and wonderful fact that occurred when the Red Book was published in 2009 was the fact that there were several testimonies of people who had been Carl Jung’s patients and understood the purpose of this work.
While some raised their hands to the head in front of this entire literary ocean populated by wisdom trees, reptile brains, devouring dragons, and kundalini snakes, others recalled advice Dr. Jung had given them:
“I recommend that you write your thoughts, emotions and sensations in a very well connected book. Practice visualization, meditate, relax and then your power will be released. When these things are in your beloved book, you can turn to it to look at Your pages, and this will be your church, its cathedral, the quiet place of your mind where you will find renewal. If someone says it’s morbid or neurotic and you listen, you’ll lose your soul, and this book will be your soul. ?
A wise counsel from a great teacher, whose shadow, in the form of an intellectual legacy, delights us and still frightens us.