Red Book Quotes

“Be silent and listen: have you recognized your madness and do you admit it? Have you noticed that all your foundations are completely mired in madness? Do you not want to recognize your madness and welcome it in a friendly manner? You wanted to accept everything. So accept madness too. Let the light of your madness shine, and it will suddenly dawn on you. Madness is not to be despised and not to be feared, but instead you should give it life...If you want to find paths, you should also not spurn madness, since it makes up such a great part of your nature...Be glad that you can recognize it, for you will thus avoid becoming its victim. Madness is a special form of the spirit and clings to all teachings and philosophies, but even more to daily life, since life itself is full of craziness and at bottom utterly illogical. Man strives toward reason only so that he can make rules for himself. Life itself has no rules. That is its mystery and its unknown law. What you call knowledge is an attempt to impose something comprehensible on life.”
― C.G. Jung, The Red Book: A Reader's Edition

“The way to truth stands open only to those without intentions.”
― Carl Jung

“But the poison of the serpent, whose head you crush, enters you through the wound in your heel; and thus the serpent becomes more dangerous than it was before. Since whatever I reject is never- theless in my nature. I thought it was without, and so I believed that I could destroy it. But it resides in me and has only assumed a passing outer form and stepped toward me. I destroyed its form and believed that I was a conqueror. But I have not yet overcome myself.”
― jung

“Selfish desire ultimately desires itself You find yourselfin your desire, so do not say that desire is vain. Ifyou desire yoursel£ you produce the divine son in your embrace with yourself Your desire is the father of the God, your self is the mother of the God, but the son is the new God, your master.
If you embrace your sel£ then it will appear to you as if the world has become cold and empty The cOlning God moves into this emptiness.
If you are in your solitude, and all the space around you has become cold and unending, then you have moved far from men, and at the same time you have come near to them as never before. Selfish desire only" apparently led you to men, but in reality it led you away from them and in the end to yoursel£ which to you and to others was the most remote. But now, if you are in solitude, your God leads you to the God of others, and through that to the true neighbor, to the neighbor of the self in others.
If you are in yoursel£ you become aware of your incapacity. You will see how little capable you are of imitating the heroes and ofbeing a hero yourself So you will also no longer force others to become heroes. Like you, they suffer from incapacity Incapacity; too, wants to live, but it will overthrow your Gods.”
― Carl Jung

“Whoever looks from inside knows that everything is new.”
― Carl Jung

“He: "I mean, are you happy and are you fully alive?"
I laughed: ''As you can see, you wove witty jokes into the lecture to please your listeners. You heaped up learned expressions to impress them. You were restless and hasty, as if still compelled to snatch up all knowledge. You are not in yourself"
Although these words at first seemed laughable to me, they still made an impression on me, and reluctantly I had to / credit the old man, since he was right.
Then he said: "Dear Ammonius, I have delightful tidings for you: God has become flesh in his son and has brought us all salvation." ""What are you saying," I called, "you probably mean Osiris, who shall appear in the mortal body?"
"No," he replied, "this man lived in Judea and was born from a virgin."
I laughed and answered: "I already know about this; a Jewish trader has brought tidings of our virgin queen to Judea, whose image appears on the walls of one of our temples, and reported it as a fairy tale."
"No," the old man insisted, "he was the Son of God."
"Then you mean Horus the son of Osiris, don't you?" I answered.
"No,hewasnotHorus,butarealman,andhewashung from a cross."
"Oh, but this must be Seth, surely; whose punishments our old ones have often described."
But the old man stood by his conviction and said: "He died and rose up on the third day."
"Well, then he must be Osiris," I replied impatiently. "No," he cried, "he is called Jesus the anointed one." ''Ah, you really mean this Jewish God, whom the poor
honor at the harbor, and whose unclean mysteries they celebrate in cellars."
"He was a man and yet the Son of God," said the old man staring at me intently.
"That's nonsense, dear old man," I said, and showed him to the door. But like an echo from distant rock faces the words returned to me: a man and yet the Son of God. It seemed significant to me, and this phrase was what brought me to Christianity.
I: "But don't you think that Christianity could ultimately be a
transformation ofyour Egyptian teachings?"
A: "If you say that our old teachings were less adequate
expressions of Christianity, then I'm more likely to agree with you." I: "Yes, but do you then assume that the history of religions is
aimed at a final goal?"
A: "My father once bought a black slave at the market from the
region of the source of the Nile. He came from a country that had heard ofneither Osiris nor the other Gods; he told me many things in a more simple language that said the same as we believed about Osiris and the other Gods. I learned to understand that those uneducated Negroes unknowingly already possessed most of what the religions of the cultured peoples had developed into complete doctrines. Those able to read that language correctly could thus recognize in it not only the pagan doctrines but also the doctrine of Jesus. And it's with this that I now occupy myself I read the gospels and seek their meaning which is yet to come.We know their meaning as it lies before us, but not their hidden meaning which points to the future. It's erroneous to believe that religions differ in their innermost essence. Strictly speaking, it's always one and the same religion. Every subsequent form of religion is the meaning of the antecedent."
I: "Have you found out the meaning which is yet to come?" A: "No, not yet; it's very difficult, but I hope I'll succeed. Sometimes it seems to me that I need the stimulation of others,
but I realize that those are temptations of Satan."
I: "Don't you believe that you'd succeed ifyou were nearer men?"
A: "maybeyoureright."
He looks at me suddenly as if doubtful and suspicious. "But, I love the desert, do you understand? This yellow, sun-glowing desert. Here you can see the countenance of the sun every day; you are alone, you can see glorious Helios-no, that is
- pagan-what's wrong with me? I'm confused-you are Satan- I recognize you-give way; adversary!" He jumps up incensed and wants to lunge at me. But I am far away in the twentieth century.”
― carl jung

“This inner world is truly infinite, in no way poorer than the outer one. Man lives in two worlds.
Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 264”
― Carl Gustv Jung

“Why are we talking about moving to Orodism Island? The goal is to create a new civilization of people who love existence, humanity and freedom.”
― The Philosopher Orod Bozorg

“There is only one way and that is your way. There is only one salvation and that is your salvation. Why are you looking for help. Do you believe help will come from outside? What is to come will be created in you and from you. Hence look into yourself. Do not compare. Do not measure. No other way is like yours. All other ways deceive and tempt you. You must fulfill the way that is in you.”
― Carl Jung

“When my prince had fallen, the spirit ofthe depths opened my vision and let me become aware of the birth of the new God. The divine child approached me out of the terrible ambiguity, the hateful-beautiful, the evil-good, the laughable-serious, the
sick-healthy, the inhuman-human and the ungodly-godly.129
I understood that the Godl3o whom we seek in the absolute was not to be found in absolute beauty, goodness, seriousness,
elevation, humanity or even in godliness. Once the God was there. I understood that the new God would be in the relative. If the God is absolute beauty and goodness, how should he encompass the of life, which is beautiful and hateful, good and evil, laughable and serious, human and inhuman? How can man live in the womb of the God if the Godhead
himself attends only to one-half of him?131
If we have risen near the heights of good and evil, then our
badness and hatefulness lie in the most extreme torment. Man's torment is so great and the air of the heights so wealc that he can hardly live anymore. The good and the beautiful freeze to the ice of the absolute idea/32 and the bad and hateful become mud puddles full of crazy life.
Therefore after his death Christ had to journey to Hell, otherwise the ascent to Heaven would have become impos- sible for him. Christ first had to become his Antichrist, his underworldly brother.
No one knows what happened during the three days Christ was in Hell. I have experienced it.133 The men ofyore said that he had preached there to the deceased.134 What they say is true, but do you know how this happened?
It was folly and monkey business, an atrocious Hell's masquerade of the holiest mysteries. How else could Christ have saved his Antichrist? Read the unknown books of the ancients, and you will learn much from them. Notice that Christ did not remain in Hell, but rose to the heights in the beyond.135
Our conviction of the value of the good and beautiful has become strong and unshakable, that is why life can extend beyond this and still fulfil everything that lay bound and yearning. But the bound and yearning is also the,hateful and bad. Are you again indignant about the hateful and the bad?
Through this you can recognize h()w great are their force and value for life. Do you think that it is dead in you? But this dead can also change into serpents.136These serpents will extinguish the prince ofyour days.”
― Carl Jung

“He could find his soul in desire itself, but not in the objects of desire.”
― Carl Jung

“Only in the desert do we become aware of our terrible simple-mindedness, but we are afraid of admitting it.”
― Carl Jung

“Because I carried the war in me, I foresaw it.”
― Carl Jung

“We cannot slay our incapacity and rise above it, but that is precisely what we wanted. Incapacity exists. No one should deny it, find fault with it or shout it down.”
― Carl Jung

“Do not throw yourself against what has become, enraged or bent on destruction. What will you put in its place? Do you not know that if you are successful in destroying what has become, you will then turn the will of destruction against yourself? But anyone who makes destruction their goal will perish through self-destruction. Much rather respect what has become, since reverence is a blessing.”
― Carl Jung

“Your God is a child, so long as you are not childlike. Is the child order, meaningi' Or disorder, capricei' Disorder and meaninglessness are the mother oforder and meaning. Order and meaning are things that have become and are no longer becoming.
You open the gates ofthe soul to let the darkffood ofchaosffow into your order and meaning. I f you marry the ordered to the chaos you produce the divine child, the supreme meaning beyond meaning and meaninglessness.
You are aftaid to open the doori' I too was ayaid, since we hadforgotten that God is terrible. Christ taught: God is love. 66 But you should know that love is also terrible.
I spoke to a loving soul and as I drew nearer to her, I was overcome by horror, and I heaped up a wall ofdoubt, and did not anticipate that I thus wanted to protect myselfyom myftaiful soul.
You dread the depths; it should horrify you, since the way ofwhat is to come leads through it. You must endure the temptation offtar and doubt, and at the same time acknowledge to the bone that your ftar is justified and your doubt is reasonable. How otherwise / could it be a true temptation and a true overcomingi'
Christ totally overcomes the temptation ofthe devil, but not the temptation ofGodtogoodandreason.67 Christthussuccumbstocursing.68
Youstillhavetolearnthis,tosuccumbtonotemptation,buttodo thing ofyour own will; then you will befree and beyond christianity.
I have had to recognize that I must submit to what I ftar; yes, even more, that I must even love what horrifies me. We must learn suchyom that saint who was disgusted by the plague inftctions; she drank the pus cifplague boils and became aware that it smelled like roses. The acts cifthe saint were not in vain. 69
I n everything regarding your salvation and the attainment ofmercy, you are dependent on your soul. Thus no sacrifice can be too(greatfor you. I f your virtues hinder youyom salvation, discard them, since they have become evil to you. The slave to virtuefinds the way as little as the slave to vices.70
Ifyou believe that you are the master ofyour soul, then become her vant. I f you were her servant, make yourselfher master, since she needs to be ruled. These should be yourfirst steps.”
― carl jung

“2] When the desert begins to bloom, it brings forth strange plants. You will consider yourself mad, and in a certain sense you will in fact be mad.88 To the extent that the Christianity of this time lacks madness, it lacks divine life. TalThis is how I overcame madness. Ifyou do not know what divine madness is, suspend judgment and wait for the fruits.90 But know that there is a divine madness which is nothing other than the overpowering of the spirit of this time through the spirit of the depths. Speal< then of sick delusion when the spirit of the depths can no longer stay down and forces a man to speak in tongues instead of in human speech, and makes him believe that he himself is the spirit of the depths. But also speal< of sick delusion when the spirit of this time does not leave a man and forces him to see only the surface, to deny the spirit of the depths and to take himself for the spirit of the times. The spirit of this time is ungodly; the spirit of the depths is ungodly; balance is godly.”
― jung

“Depths and surface should mix so that new life can develop. Yet the new life does not develop outside of us, but within us. What happens outside us in these days is the image that the peoples live in events, to bequeath this image immemorially to far-off times so that they might learn from it for their own way; just as we learned from the images that the ancients had lived before us in events.
Life does not come from events, but from us. Everything that happens outside has already been.
Therefore whoever considers the eventfrom outside always sees only that it already was, and that it is always the same. But whoever looksfrom inside, knows that everything is new. The events that happen are always the same. But the creative depths ofman are not always the same. Events signify noth- ing, they signify only in us. We create the meaning ofevents. The meaning is and always was artijicial. We make it.
Because ofthis we seek in ourselves the meaning ofevents, so that the way of/ what is to come becomes apparent and our life canpow again.
That which you need comes from yourself, namely the meaning o f the event. The meaning o f events is not their particular meaning. This meaning exists in learned books. Events have no meaning.
The meaning o fevents is the way o fsalvation that you create. The meaning o f events comes from the pOSSibility oflife in this world that you create. I t is the mastery ofthis world and the assertion ofyour soul in this world.
This meaning ofevents is the supreme meaning, that is not in events, and not in the soul, but is the God standing between events and the soul, the mediator oflife, the way, the bridge and the going across. 92
I would not have been able to see what was to come if I could not have seen it in myself
Therefore I talce part in that murder; the sun of the depths also shines in me after the murder has been accomplished; the thousand serpents that want to devour the sun are also in me. I myself am a murderer and murdered, sacrificer and sacrificed.93 The upwelling blood streams out of me.”
― Jung

“May the frightfulness become so great that it can turn men's eyes inward, so that their will no longer seeks the self in others but in themselves.236 I saw it, I know that this is the way: I saw the death of Christ and I saw his lament; I felt the agony of his dying, of the great dying. I saw a new God, a child, who subdued daimons in his hand.237 The God holds the separate principles in his power, he unites them. The God develops through the union of the principles in me. He is their union.
If you will one of these principles, so you are in one, but far from your being other. If you will both principles, one and the other, then you excite the conflict between the principles, since you cannot want both at the same time. From this arises the need, the God appears in it, he takes your conflicting will in his hand, in the hand of a child whose will is simple and beyond conflict. You cannot learn this, it can only develop in you. You cannot will this, it takes the will from your hand and wills itself Will yourself that leads to the way:238 '
But fundamentally you are terrified ofyourself and therefore you prefer to run to all others rather than to yourself I saw the mountain of the sacrifice, and the blood poured in streams from its sides. When I saw how pride and power satisfied men, how beauty beamed from the eyes ofwomen when the great war broke out, I knew that mankind was on the way to self-sacrifice.
The spirit of the depths239 has seized mankind and forces self-sacrifice upon it. Do not seek the guilt here or there. The spirit of the depths clutched the fate of man unto itself as it clutched mine. He leads mankind through the river of blood to the mystery: In the mystery man himself becomes the two principles, the lion and the serpent.
Because I also want my being other, I must become a Christ. I am made into Christ, I must suffer it. Thus the redeeming blood flows. Through the self-sacrifice my pleasure is changed and goes above into its higher principle. Love is sighted, but pleasure is blind. Both principles are one in the symbol of the flame. The principles strip themselves ofhuman form.24o
The mystery showed me in images what I should afterward live. I did not possess any of those boons that the mystery showed me, for I still had to earn all of them.241
finis. part. prim. (End of part one)”
― Jung

“If a God ceases being the way of life, he must fall secretly.”
― Carl Jung

“No culture of the mind is enough to make a garden out of your soul.”
― Carl Jung

“You should be he himself--not Christians, but Christ.”
― Carl Jung

“Dreams are the guiding words of the soul.”
― Carl Jung

“Dreams pave the way for life, and they determine you without you understanding their language.”
― C.G. Jung

“To understand a thing is a bridge and possibility of returning to the path. But to explain a matter is arbitrary and sometimes even murder. Have you counted the murderers among the scholars?”
― Carl Jung

“The peoples demonstrate this at the present time in unforgettable acts, that will be written with blood in unforgettable books for eternal memory:95
But I ask you, when do men fallon their brothers with mighty weapons and bloody acts? They do such if they do not know that their brother is themselves. They themselves are sacrificers, but they mutually do the service of sacrifice. They must all sacrifice each other, since t.he time has not yet come when man puts the bloody knife into himsel£ in order to sacrifice the one he kills in his brother. But whom do people kill? They kill the noble, the brave, the heroes. They take aim at these and do not know that with these they mean themselves. They should sacrifice the hero in themselves, and because they do not know this, they kill their courageous brother.”
― Jung

“As the fate of the peoples is represented to you in events, so will it happen in your heart. If the hero in you is slain, then the sun of the depths rises in you, glowing from afar, and from a dreadful place. But all the same, everything that up till now seemed to be dead in you will come to life, and will change into poisonous serpents that will cover the sun, and you will fall into night and confusion. Your blood also will stream from many wounds in this frightful struggle. Your shock and doubt will be great, but from such torment the new life will be born. Birth is blood and torment. Your darkness, which you did not suspect since it was dead, will come to life and you will feel the crush of total evil and the conflicts of life that still now lie buried in the matter of your body. But the serpents are dreadful evil thoughts and feelings.
You thought you knew that abyss? Oh you clever people! It is another thing to experience it. Everything will happen to you. Think of all the frightful and devilish things that men have inflicted on their brothers. That should happen to you in your heart. Suffer it yourself through your own hand, and know that it is your own heinous and devilish hand that inflicts the suffering onyou,butnotyourbrother,whowrestleswithhisowndevils.”
― Jung

“After death on the cross Christ went into the underworld and became Hell. So he took on the form of the Antichrist, the dragon. The image of the Antichrist, which has come down to us from the ancients, announces the new God, whose coming the ancients had foreseen.
Gods are unavoidable. The more you flee from the God, the more surely you fall into his hand.”
― Jung

“Love and forethinlcing are in one and the same place. Love cannot be without forethinking, and forethinking cannot be without love. Man is always too much in one or the other. This comes with human nature. Animals and plants seem to have enough in every way; only man staggers between too much and too little. He wavers, he is uncertain how much he must give a share in the whole of mankind, as if you were the whole of here and how much there. His knowledge and ability is insufficient, and yet he must still do it himself Man doesn't only grow from within himsel£ for he is also creative225 from within himself The God becomes revealed in him.226 Human nature is little skilled in divinity; and therefore man fluctuates between too much and too little.”
― jung

“You will not be seen as long as you speak of your superiority.”
― The Philosopher Orod Bozorg