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To people who recommend The Red Book as a first Jungian book, can you give a detailed summary of it?
Main Post: To people who recommend The Red Book as a first Jungian book, can you give a detailed summary of it?
Top Comment: The Red Book is very similar to the religious texts and is very much written like a Bible In the red book Jung goes on an adventure into his own unconsciousness and meets demons (shadow) and angels (salome) He meets Salome and the old man (anima and self) in the desert, they tell him its a desert because he let his unconscious dry out so nothing can grow Jung makes a trip from The West (his consciousness,ego,logos,science,rationality etc.) To the East (unconsciousness,fantasy,shadow,anima) but later on realizes that going too far east will blind you because the sun is too bright, and youll be unable to find the way back (psychosis) so he stays on the middle of the road for awhile with Izabul, a wounded demon that can only survive his wounds by declaring himself a fantasy (parralell of God is dead and we have killed him) Im in the chapter where he'll go into hell right now so I cant add anything further yet However when I read the red book I definitely experience differents and shifts in my unconscious mind and I get prophetic archetypical dreams more often. The writing is similar-ish to Nietzsche and is very methaphorical, reading the red book shouldnt be done using your literal mind but moreso in the same way that you would analyse your dreams
Reading Carl Jung’s Red Book... My mind is already blowing up 🔥
Main Post: Reading Carl Jung’s Red Book... My mind is already blowing up 🔥
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Does Jung ever define what a soul is?
The Red Book very much feels like a spellbook
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theres a certain "magic" woven in the red book imo, similar to how religious texts might enlighten an indivual. its imagery and symbolism speaks so clearly to the unconsciousness to a level equal of that of music, the book truly opens the doors of perception of your unconsciousness.
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I've got it sitting on my shelf. I'm waiting for my own unconscious to indicate that it's ready for it.
Should I buy The Red Book? It's expensive for my standards and I am just starting to learn about Jung
Main Post: Should I buy The Red Book? It's expensive for my standards and I am just starting to learn about Jung
Top Comment: No, you should not. The Red Book is Jung's personal journey which cannot possibly be understood without understanding his approach to alchemy, which requires a deep understanding of Jungian theories. Reading the Red Book first would make it sound like a fairy tail, and would not lead to the understanding of his theories. If reading Jung directly, the general recommendation is to start with the Collected Works volume 7, Two Essays. Though, the Tavistock Lectures at the beginning of volume 18 is also a good place to start, and it is what the Reading Group is reading right now.
What's up with Carl Jung's Red Book ?
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A friend of mine told me about it and he had some ridiculous things to say like it's dangerous to your subconscious mind and some people went mad after reading it and watching the illustrations. Now I believe my friend is a bit paranoid but I would love to know if anyone knows more about the story of this book.
Top Comment:
I’ve only read 20 pages of it.
The way I’ve interpreted it, and the reason why I think it’s scary, is because it emphasises the weight of our personal and collective unconscious when it comes to how we perceive the world, and how we make decisions.
Our consciousness and ego represents a very small part. And it rarely has the power to interpret the unconscious.
The dreams Carl Jung described, and the way they are tied to reality, is frightening.
Carl Jung UNCONSCIOUSLY thought, that he lived under the shadow of Freud. But he only realised this, thanks to his unconscious serving things up, using various symbolic narratives.
It was his unconscious making him dream about the border officer still patrolling long after he died. And how a third party in this dream, told him how this border officer should’ve died a long time ago, but for some reason, his ghost lives on.
Or about how he saw a knight in shining armour in the village, which represented him. But he had no idea. The realisation only came later.
The fact that reality is subjective, and the fact that our collective unconscious knows how subjective it is, and often times tries to correct in whatever way it knows best, is the most terrifying thing that emerges from reading Jung, in my opinion so far.
I’ve only read a small part of what Jung wrote, so my interpretation could be off. But that’s how I thought about it, and that’s what made me terrified.
A pictorial guide to the Red Book - pictures and summaries
Main Post: A pictorial guide to the Red Book - pictures and summaries
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Nice, if it wasn't so expensive I'd love to have a copy of the redbook.
[RG2] The Red Book
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Hi everyone :) This will be a second reading group for those interested in reading through the Red Book. If there are queries, problems etc, don’t be afraid to express them in comments below (Also an indication that you will be participating would be cool, although as an introvert i understand if some would rather participate in abscondita)
Section Start Finish Introduction now Jan 18th 2019 Liber Primus Jan 19th 2019 Feb 18th 2019 Liber Secundus Feb 19th 2019 Apr 18th 2019 Scrutinies April 19th 2019 May 18th 2019There can be few unpublished works that have already exerted such far-reaching effects upon twentieth-century social and intellectual history as Jung's Red Book, or Liber Novus (New Book). Nominated by Jung to contain the nucleus of his later works, it has long been recognized as the key to comprehending their genesis.
Here are some posts on the introduction:
As with the first reading group, discussion threads based on the Red Book reading group should start with the [RG2] tag. Discussion will be in the same period as the reading, so as questions arise, post threads and lets discuss them :)
My Most Difficult Experiment
The Red Book contains the journey Jung went on when he could find no other worldly recourse to further his understanding...he had to undergo the original experience. As such it contains a combination of his subjective psyche and the objective psyche. This is one of the reasons that he was worried about publishing, as if people blindly followed his path when they didn’t have his particular personality they would be imitating him instead of finding themselves. However at the same time it also contains much wisdom, prophecy and with it’s more numinous poetic form, a side of Jung you don’t get with his other material.
THE YEARS, OF WHICH I HAVE SPOKEN TO YOU, when i pursued the inner images, were the most important time of my life. Everything else is to be derived from this. It began at that time, and the later details hardly matter anymore. My entire life consisted in elaborating what had burst forth from the unconscious and flooded me like an enigmatic stream and threatened to break me. That was the stuff and material for more than only one life. Everything later was merely the outer classification, the scientific elaboration, and the integration into life. But the numinous beginning, which contained everything, was then. ~ C.G.Jung 1957
Liber Primus Chapters:
Chapter Title Prologue The Way of What Is to Come I Refinding the Soul II Soul and God III On the Service of the Soul IV The Desert V Descent into Hell in the future VI Splitting of the Spirit VII Murder of the Hero VIII The Conception of the God IX Mysterium Encounter X Instruction XI ResolutionLiber Secundus Chapters:
Chapter Title I The Red One II The Castle and the Forest III One of the Lowly IV The Anchorite V Dies II VI Death VII The Remains of Earlier Temples VIII First Day IX Second Day X The Incantations XI The Opening of the Egg XII Hell XIII The Sacrificial Murder XIV Divine Folly XV Nox Secunda XVI Nox Tertia* XVII Nox Quarta XVIII The Three Prophecies XIX The Gift of Magic XX The Way of the Cross XXI The Magician*Important chapter imo
Spelunkers Mutedplum gregtwelve conrad1101 Josenphage ManofSpa nflsimms ZacharyWayne reLight Consuelanator AlienCatMind FeelingRatherRosy slabbb- MtCocoa AnticBoulevardier Cotonetes CORIreland elyown philphul sissaordep frenchbananahammock jedi-of-awareness orange_fly monkeysandogs peterlongc portalink Agnidhr fuminggodchild Pet_ghost Cthulhuman inhaleexhaletv taurasi mickeythefist_ Sagaciously eternalgnome Richie_O zenpozer jorn818 markvance04 AlpineSoul KroywennowNB. a further resourse to suppliment the reading is this Lecture series by Stephen Hoeller Here
Zach's posts relating to the Red Book:
The Sun Rises from the Darkest
Top Comment: Hi MP. I've read it a few times and probably need to read it at least once more. I will pitch in with responses to queries if I am able.
Last Line of The Red Book
Main Post: Last Line of The Red Book
Top Comment: Some echoes of Nietzsche in this. From Beyond Good and Evil: The discipline of suffering, of great suffering—know ye not that it is only this discipline that has produced all the elevations of humanity hitherto? The tension of soul in misfortune which communicates to it its energy, its shuddering in view of rack and ruin, its inventiveness and bravery in undergoing, enduring, interpreting, and exploiting misfortune, and whatever depth, mystery, disguise, spirit, artifice, or greatness has been bestowed upon the soul—has it not been bestowed through suffering?
For anyone who would like to peak inside the expensive facsimile edition of The Red Book, here's a link.
Main Post: For anyone who would like to peak inside the expensive facsimile edition of The Red Book, here's a link.
Top Comment: I got it as a christmas-present. I thought it was a normal book, didn't expect it to be this massive. Any advice for reading it? I find it hurts my cervical spine because it's so big. Best method i found was in my bed while holding it upright. But it's an absolutely stunning book.
The red book
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So i'm 20 and i absolutely love jung. So far i've only read man and his symbols, however i learned a lot from the internet and i would consider my self pretty sophisticated and psychology, philsophy and religion. I'd love to read it, but i have a healthy respect for the book. I'm kinda afraid that it will mess me up or that i won't understand it because i'm still pretty jung. The little pun had to be.
Top Comment:
There are good reasons to start with the other books recommended in other posts. There again, I understood Aion better having read the Red Book.
If you plan to read them all anyway it may not matter. The more important thing being to read them multiple times otherwise the depth eludes you.
I always say to younger readers, the main challenge in reading Jung is to remember to live life, to go out and make mistakes and not get too absorbed in theories.