The word is out that Carl Jung's legendary Red Book, containing many years' worth of his most private explorations of his psyche, will be published in facsimile this month by W. W. Norton. The combination of hand-lettered pages and astonishing multicolored paintings in a baffling array of styles makes the book feel like a cross between William Blake's illustrated poems and an illuminated manuscript from the Middle Ages. In 1913, Jung underwent a crisis, or what he termed a "confrontation with the unconscious." Not one to shrink from a challenge, he induced visions and hallucinations and recorded what he discovered. The Red Book is the result of his psychological self-analysis and artistic visions. The book, which was the subject of an unprecedented New York Times Magazine cover story, is laden with copious footnotes and cross-references by Jung researcher and editor Sonu Shamdasani, including citations of the writings of some of Jung's clients and his many astonishing paintings. (Judging from the few illustrations that accompanied the Times article,
his artistic styles range from Surrealism and Transcendentalism to
graffiti art--one image looks surprisingly like a precursor of Keith
Haring!)
Creating the book apparently led Jung to reformulate how he worked with
his analytical patients. One especially profound example appeared in a
self-published book written by a former client, in which she recalls
Jung's advice for processing what went on in the deeper and sometimes
frightening parts of her mind.
"I should advise you to put it all down as beautifully as you can--in some beautifully bound book," Jung instructed her. "It will seem as if you were making the visions banal--but then you need to do that--then you are freed from the power of them. . . . Then when these things are in some precious book you can go to the book & turn over the pages & for you it will be your church--your cathedral--the silent places of your spirit where you will find renewal. If anyone tells you that it is morbid or neurotic and you listen to them--then you will lose your soul--for in that book is your soul."
I don't think I've read a finer or more succinct description of the art and value of sacred journaling. I always tell my counseling clients, as well as the hundreds of people I instruct in journaling at at CMED (Caroline Myss's educational institution based in the Chicago area), that it doesn't matter what kind of journal they use. A two-dollar spiral notebook or school theme tablet is a s good as a leather-bound book with creamy, textured pages. And I believe that's true if it will get you journaling instead of dithering for months about finding the "perfect" journal. Now, though, I think I would combine both insights: Begin journaling with whatever is at hand or easiest to buy (you can get a spiral notebook in most drugstores), but also start looking around for the kind of journal that will make you want to write in (and fondle) it.
I also advise sy students to kepp a separate dream journal, which they should keep at their bedside along with a pen that had has some kind of soft illumination. I used to recommend Star Light Pens for this purpose, but they have been discontinued. However, I found a reasonably priced alternative, a batch of 12 illumined pens that, with shipping, comes to about $15 (from generally reliable amazon.com). They don't look fancy, but they'll do. I've ordered some and will report back. (If you google on your own, be careful not to oredr a "pen light" by mistake. These light up but don't write--the name refers only to the size and shape of the things.)
The important point is to start keeping track of your nighttime dreams as well as your waking dreams. What do I mean by "waking dreams"? I have always promoted recording your dreams because they are one way that your subconscious mind communicates with you. We all dream every night (unless taking certain medications), but we tend to forget our dreams if we don't train ourselves to recall and record them.
In a recent talk at CMED, renowned scholar and author Richard Tarnas lectured about Jung's belief that synchronitity (the occurrence of meaningful "coincidences") is yet another way our subconscious communicates with our conscious mind. The difference is that we are usually wide awake when synchronicities occur, and so are more readily able to apprehend their significance--if we are paying attention! Jung variously described synchronicity as an "acausal connecting principle," a "meaningful coincidence," and "acausal parallelism." By "acausal" (without cause) he meant that there was no causal relationship between the events. We could more commonly define synchronicity as a conceptual relationship between ideas and events that is intricately structured in its own logical way. By observing and recording these synchronous events, we can learn more about the significance of our daily actions, thoughts, and divine guidance--because synchronicity and dreams are both forms of guidance.
One example of such a synchronicity occurred at the very CMED workshop at which I heard Tarnas speak. I devoted much of my own opening lecture on Thursday (Oct.1) to the Times Magazine article on Jung's Red Book, and the significance of synchronity, as well as the quote with which I began this blog. Tarnas did not arrive at the hotel until two days later (Oct. 3), and had no way of knowing what I'd spoken about, just as I had no clue what he would be discussing. Nonetheless, he opened his lecture with a lengthy discussion of the Times aricle about the Red Book, leading into his fascinating remarks on synchronicity. Taking cognizance of this astonishing correlation, I used my remarks at the closing panel oh Sunday to alert everyone at the workshop to the importance of synchronicity.
So my closing point is to pay as much attention to the synchronicities in your waking life as you do to the symbolic events of your dream life. Combining the two can help you triangulate the significance of what is occurring in your daily life.
"I should advise you to put it all down as beautifully as you can--in some beautifully bound book," Jung instructed her. "It will seem as if you were making the visions banal--but then you need to do that--then you are freed from the power of them. . . . Then when these things are in some precious book you can go to the book & turn over the pages & for you it will be your church--your cathedral--the silent places of your spirit where you will find renewal. If anyone tells you that it is morbid or neurotic and you listen to them--then you will lose your soul--for in that book is your soul."
I don't think I've read a finer or more succinct description of the art and value of sacred journaling. I always tell my counseling clients, as well as the hundreds of people I instruct in journaling at at CMED (Caroline Myss's educational institution based in the Chicago area), that it doesn't matter what kind of journal they use. A two-dollar spiral notebook or school theme tablet is a s good as a leather-bound book with creamy, textured pages. And I believe that's true if it will get you journaling instead of dithering for months about finding the "perfect" journal. Now, though, I think I would combine both insights: Begin journaling with whatever is at hand or easiest to buy (you can get a spiral notebook in most drugstores), but also start looking around for the kind of journal that will make you want to write in (and fondle) it.
I also advise sy students to kepp a separate dream journal, which they should keep at their bedside along with a pen that had has some kind of soft illumination. I used to recommend Star Light Pens for this purpose, but they have been discontinued. However, I found a reasonably priced alternative, a batch of 12 illumined pens that, with shipping, comes to about $15 (from generally reliable amazon.com). They don't look fancy, but they'll do. I've ordered some and will report back. (If you google on your own, be careful not to oredr a "pen light" by mistake. These light up but don't write--the name refers only to the size and shape of the things.)
The important point is to start keeping track of your nighttime dreams as well as your waking dreams. What do I mean by "waking dreams"? I have always promoted recording your dreams because they are one way that your subconscious mind communicates with you. We all dream every night (unless taking certain medications), but we tend to forget our dreams if we don't train ourselves to recall and record them.
In a recent talk at CMED, renowned scholar and author Richard Tarnas lectured about Jung's belief that synchronitity (the occurrence of meaningful "coincidences") is yet another way our subconscious communicates with our conscious mind. The difference is that we are usually wide awake when synchronicities occur, and so are more readily able to apprehend their significance--if we are paying attention! Jung variously described synchronicity as an "acausal connecting principle," a "meaningful coincidence," and "acausal parallelism." By "acausal" (without cause) he meant that there was no causal relationship between the events. We could more commonly define synchronicity as a conceptual relationship between ideas and events that is intricately structured in its own logical way. By observing and recording these synchronous events, we can learn more about the significance of our daily actions, thoughts, and divine guidance--because synchronicity and dreams are both forms of guidance.
One example of such a synchronicity occurred at the very CMED workshop at which I heard Tarnas speak. I devoted much of my own opening lecture on Thursday (Oct.1) to the Times Magazine article on Jung's Red Book, and the significance of synchronity, as well as the quote with which I began this blog. Tarnas did not arrive at the hotel until two days later (Oct. 3), and had no way of knowing what I'd spoken about, just as I had no clue what he would be discussing. Nonetheless, he opened his lecture with a lengthy discussion of the Times aricle about the Red Book, leading into his fascinating remarks on synchronicity. Taking cognizance of this astonishing correlation, I used my remarks at the closing panel oh Sunday to alert everyone at the workshop to the importance of synchronicity.
So my closing point is to pay as much attention to the synchronicities in your waking life as you do to the symbolic events of your dream life. Combining the two can help you triangulate the significance of what is occurring in your daily life.
Speaking of dreams (and committing them to paper) as well as synchronicity, I recommend the following from John Lennon:
"#9 Dream"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_Nine_Dream
There's currently a wonderful exhibit at the Rubin Museum, in NYC.