Beginner's Guide to Revelation: A Jungian Interpretation

by Robin Robertson

For 800 years the prophecies in the Book of Revelation have captured the collective Western imagination. In Beginner's Guide to Revelation , Robin Robertson uses his unique skills as a Jungian-oriented therapist to reinterpret this magnificent document as a saga of changing human consciousness. Robertson follows a spiral path around the central issues of our time, drawing from Jung's psychology, neurophysiology, shamanic rituals and modern mathematics. The author reveals how the Book of Revelation express in symbolic language our collective ability to experience within us the spiritual depths of the universe. This exciting new material offers a sensitive journey into the meaning of death, transformation and changing consciousness.

Genres: Psychology

255 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1994

About the author

Robin Robertson has spent a life-time bridging the worlds of psychology, science, business and the arts. He's a clinical psychologist and writer who has published seventeen books and more than two hundred articles in either psychology or his hobby field of magic.

He's lectured widely and has taught graduate level courses on Jungian psychology for both the California Institute of Integral Studies, and for the Jungian Studies program at Saybrook University.

Before becoming a psychologist, he was a vice-president of software development for a large insurance company, and for nearly thirty years, he's been a consultant responsible for all computer decisions to a multi-employer pension plan.

Robin has separate undergraduate degrees in mathematics and English literature, as well as an M.A. in counseling psychology, and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology.

Robin's books, often on Jungian psychology or the relationship between psychology and science, have gone through multiple printings, new revised editions, and foreign translations. Since 1986, he's been a writer, editor, columnist and editorial board member of the Jungian journal "Psychological Perspectives" (a beautiful journal that speaks not merely to specialists, but to everyone who loves Jung.)

He has also been heavily involved with the applications of chaos and complexity theory, and, has been a contributing editor for "Cybernetics & Human Knowing" (a journal that looks at deep issues about the nature of reality).

He is a life-time amateur magician, and a member of the Order of Merlin of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, who has created or co-created original effects that have appeared in six books and many magic magazines.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Steve Woods · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Book of Revelations in the Bible always seemed so outrageously enigmatic to me that I have largely ignored it, though I have read the Bible through a couple of times. The fact that the Book of Revelations has so often been cooped by raving evangelists as evidence of the way the world will end; imminently has had me ignore it as ravings and drivel. This book is probably one of the most interesting I have ever read. It interprets the Book of Revelations in terms of Jung's work, and lo and behold all of a sudden it makes sense. Jung has become the one dabbler in the ways of the mind who seems to have sorted it all out in terms that are comprehensive in nature, taking into account the vast repository of knowledge of the human mind contained in anthropology, mythology and alchemy. The very human journey of the soul and the conflicts and struggles that contains inherently. No one else has made the same kind of sense to me. Most based in the western philosophical model generally emphasize some aspect that has been an aha moment for them and ignore the rest. Hubris! The "I have found the answer" syndrome. This interpretation of the Book of Revelations places it in the firmament of Jung's thinking. It has proven to be an influential work for me. Back to the Bible for another look.

[Suzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I chose to read this book I had no idea what I was in for. I thought it was a discussion of revelation in general, only to find out it was an interpretation of the "Book of Revelation" as found in the New Testament, and also known as the "Book of the Revelation of Saint John the Divine."
This is a one of a kind interpretation. Robertson's method is striking in his use of Jungian psychology, among other discplines, to describe the change in consciousness of our present era. I found the symbolical discussion highly informative. This book is a goldmine of wisdom.