Tag: Carl Jung

The Gift of Magic

No one can really possess a symbolic object since the prime function of symbolism is not accumulation and retention, but communication by way of exchange.

~ de Riencourt, Amaury. Woman and Power in History .

~ Honeyglen Publishing Limited. Kindle Edition.

A reading and understanding from both of Carl Jung’s Red and Black Books…

A journey after reading a random pick from Jung’s Black Books. During these disturbing times I often seek council with these living books of wonder.

While reaching from Jung’s Red Book a note fell to the ground and it said,

“The Gift of Magic.”

I was following through with Jung’s commentary after reading his Black Book. I was amazed by the depth of the commentary which is about Magic.

I am surprised by the beauty of these living books. I started to read all the commentary pertaining to this random subject in his Red Book. It is a story which answered many things for me while also somehow including my life. Reading the references and commentary is the best.

Jung Black Books: Random pick of paragraph from [v.4]

S. Are you sending me away?

I. I’m sending you away. You must not be far from me. But give to me out of your fullness, not your longing.

I cannot satisfy your poverty just as you cannot still my longing. If your harvest is rich, send me some fruit from your garden. If you suffer from abundance, I will drink from the brimming horn of your joy.

I know that will be a balm for me. I can satisfy myself only at the table of the satisfied, not the meager crumbs of those who yearn and desire. I will not steal my payment.

– Pg. 253 [v.4] (126/127).

126. The subject of this sentence was replaced by “We fetched.” (ibid)

127. For Jung’s commentary on this entry, see LN {Red Book}, pg. 439-40.

Red Book.

“Well, all you will do is laugh anyway. So why should I tell you anything? It would be if everything were buried with me. It can always be rediscovered later. It will never be lost to humanity since magic is reborn with each and every one of us.”

– Pg. 313

“You know, the wisdom of things to come; there fore you are old, oh so very ancient, and just as you tower above me in years, so you tower above the present in futurity and the length of your past is immeasurable. You are legendary and unreachable. You were and will be, returning periodically.

Your wisdom is invisible, your truth is unknowable, entirely untrue in any given age and yet true in all eternity, but you pour out living waters from which the flowers of your garden bloom, a starry water, a dew of the night.

– 148/149 pg. 316

“What do you need. You need men for the sake of small things, since everything greater and the greatest thing is in you. Christ spoiled men, since he taught them that they can be saved only by one, named him, the Son of God, and ever since men have been demanding the greater things from others, especially their salvation; and if a sheep gets lost somewhere, it accuses the shepherd.

You are a man, and you prove that men are not sheep, since you look after the greatest in yourself and hence fructifying water-flows into you garden from inexhaustibly jugs.”

…

I will continue to study this yet this is enough for now.

Chris Bailey’s psychic being is still very strong

Nov 29, 1956 to April 9, 2022. 💐

“A gentleman with the mad soul of an Irish convict poet’: remembering Chris Bailey, and the blazing comet that was The Saints.”

~John Willsteed

Rendering of the band The Saints. Hudley Flipside, 2010.

I have often written that the band The Saints is one of my only addictions in my life. After the death of Chris Bailey, (now one year ago).

I have been grieving him and a general time shift. The 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s and now. Over 40 years. This band led me on a path into a different realm of being. I found a bunch of misfits like me.

I found my voice and I awoke from a kind of existential youthful experience to find myself and my soul. Music, friends, and a punk community that still holds my heart. Yet also knowing Chris Bailey was born the same time and so close to mine … we share these same generations or ten-year changes.

Youth to adulthood and being senior citizens. As this post explains so much more in an indirect way too. In my grief I decided to do something that I do once in a while to soothe my soul. I reached out to Carl Jung books. What came to mind yesterday was something from one of Carl Jung’s Black Books.

~ Volume two page 175-6.

I read from the last paragraph. I call it random reading. The intuitive response is amazing to me. Encouraging action also. So, with this so much is shared, and I am content to move on past my grief. Into a new season of life knowing that,

“the world beyond, where men are whole and complete, unlike here. The saint’s halo also characterizes his transcendent shining light, his psychic being.”

~ (p.162) The Black Books, Volume Two, Carl Jung

Life endures … this gives me hope maybe like finding the Sun!

“In this moment the enormous tension was released and like rain it swept away [57/58] everything that was tensed, too highly strung. And soon sleep returned and brought with it a curiously beautiful image.” {138}

“Forms walked clad in white silk in a colored atmosphere. Each surrounded by a strangely fragrant, glowing tinted aura, some reddish, the others blueish and greenish.” {139}

{138} “This paragraph was replaced in LN by “Then I had a second vision.” ” (p.162).

Picture.. reversed.

Picture by Judi Dransfield Kuepper.

The Saints (Barry Francis, Ivor Hay, Janine Hall, Bruce Callaway, Chris Bailey) at The Hero of Waterloo, Sydney. 1980. Picture by Judi Dransfield Kuepper. Image taken from article by John Willsteed. Link Below.

https://theconversation.com/a-gentleman-with-the-mad-soul-of-an-irish-convict-poet-remembering-chris-bailey-and-the-blazing-comet-that-was-the-saints-181059?fbclid=IwAR3o-g8RRKpyNxgIQ6x7QsihP9fTBaDqaBZhzozuQI0oHlaWVenjLWeZ_F8

“Jung recounted this dream to Aniela Jaffé and commented upon it as follow: This is some kind of in-between realm (the term definitely occurs in the original version of the dream) The idea was that if one is confronted with the shadow- as was the case through the experience of Siegfried’s dream then the idea comes:

I enter into a twilight: I am this and yet also something else. And this doubleness an abdication of the unconscious, which reached strangely far beyond me.

 Like a saint’s halo- This has a strange effect on the attitude toward the human being.

 If one is in the company of several persons, and one knows them and knows about their shadows, one then sees these people as they are, but are also something entirely different. They are surrounded by a strange sphere. They live in a strange, light-colored sphere, which circumscribes their ‘other’ state.

 This seemed to me to be like a vision of the world beyond, where men are whole and complete, unlike here. The saint’s halo also characterizes his transcendent shining light, his psychic being.”{139} (MP, p. 170)

The reminder of this entry was replaced in LN by “I know, I have stridden across the depths. Through guilt I have become newborn.” (p.162)

    Carl Jung’s Black Books. Volume two page 175-6.

Siegfried’s dream

http://mlwi.magix.net/siegfried.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Books_(Jung)

The Forgotten Room.

Astrology & Psychotherapy. Both can be part of our active imagination!

“Get in there, kid and snap them“

This is a sincere response to a post that I put up on an Astrologer’s Facebook site. No reprise from him and then he deleted my post response. Hurt, because I share the pivotal moments or the beginnings of this subject.

Is it because I wrote about other books besides the ones which this astrologer was promoting… who knows? I thought it was worth documenting.

https://www.forrestastrology.com/blogs/astrology/astrology-and-psychotherapy

It does not take an expert astrologer or Jungian therapist to understand the profoundly deep connection between astrology and psychology. I am an artist, mystic and layperson on the subject.

As once a probationer and member of the Oceanside California Rosicrucian Fellowship I studied Max Heindel’s book “Message of the Stars.” I also have read and reflected on Carl Jung’s books. “Red Book: Liber Novus” and his recently published “Black Books” are on my bookshelves.

I cannot express the full influence which both Max and Jung’s books have had on me. Both being a part of my life for over 30 years. I made the connection within myself. Yes before Liz’s well researched and authored book.

It is quite remarkable.

Recently through a friend I found out about Liz Green’s book “Jung’s Studies in Astrology” and was amazed to find out that Jung wrote into the very same Oceanside California based Rosicrucian Fellowship in his pursuit of understanding astrology.

The Black Book 5, Carl Jung, 1913 – 1932, Copyright October 2020

It was part of his process in creating the Liber Novus. The Rosicrucian Fellowship has a correspondence course in Astrology. Close to over one hundred years now. Yes, the fellowship still offers the same astrology course. Historically,

it is amazing that Jung wrote into the Fellowship. It is a fact-based story. It is quite overwhelming to me. I somehow knew the connection personally. All facts now presented in Liz’s book. I have posted about this before too. It is important to me.

I enjoy your insight and I agree with you in your professionally written Astrology and Psychotherapy article. I have experienced it firsthand for years. Thank you for sharing.

I use astrology in a creative way. I take Jung’s concept of “Active Imagination” to engage in a relationship with the planets of astrology of our solar system and beyond. Just one reason I know it is an exceptionally good connection to have.

Thank You

Lyrics

It’s so obvious, it’s here, it’s there
It’s not just the color, it must be more
At least 17 plus 3 score, this is 77
Nearly heaven, it’s black, white and pink

Just think, there’s more to come
Hum hum hum hum, it’s so obvious

Well it’s alright, listen, can’t wait for 78
God, those RPM, can’t wait for them
Don’t just watch, hours happen
Get in there, kid and snap them

A feminine soul to be precise

3/10/2023

I have taken my pearl watercolor and moved the painting into the living room near to the right of my hearth. Today I was reading some interesting words that brought to life this image. It is amazing to me that sometimes one is inspired to create an image from a narrative and finds this image in another narrative. They built upon each other bringing both narratives together with even greater meaning because both are weaving together. Forming an alchemical experience in me. As well as all of us… a path to peace maybe?

 ‘This is a more ambiguous but possibly more productive way of looking at matter and may be applied to Taurus and the second house. Following this thread is unquestionably like plunging into a labyrinth for what eventually emerges is that the second house has nothing to do with objects at all. The “pearl of great price” appears to lie at the heart of the labyrinth, but the persistence of a Taurean is required to reach it. The placement to find this central and unalterable value whose definition cannot be properly articulated but whose reality, to the man who has subjectively experienced it, is not to be questioned.’

Pg. 40 – 41. Saturn A New Look at an Old Devil / Liz Green.

The Pearl by Hudley

Original post.

Now having passed over this lake in this way, we first went through a narrow arm, into the right seas, where all the sirens, nymphs, and sea-goddesses were waiting for us; wherefore they immediately dispatched a sea nymph to us to deliver their present and offering of honor to the Wedding. It was a costly, great, set, round and oriental pearl, the like of which has never been seen, neither in our world nor yet in the new world.

~ Pg. 62 The Fifth Day the Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz

A watercolor inspired by a strange story. Haunting me in a symbolic world. As a woman I tend to go wandering for things to help my psyche. A feminine soul to be precise. So often in this world today everything is based on the male soul or male journey.

Even in my beloved Red Book by Carl Jung I always remember to participate as a stranger in his world; it is a journey of a male. I must hold the hand of my own animus too when I take these symbolic journeys. I feel it is important for women to know this and do this.

“Animus is the archetype of reason and spirit in women. This is the male aspect of the female psyche, as the anima is the female aspect of male psyche.”

While reading from The Red Book a few days ago I came across the Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis. I know the book and have studied it. Yes, I understand what Jung is saying but it does not appeal to my sensibility. So, I went looking, is there an Imitation of the Goddess?

I have come to see that the journey of Christ is a patriarchal one. I respect this yet have reached a point where I must refrain from this. What came to my mind today is this small watercolor I did years ago. The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz has a wonderful image that I grasped and is very friendly to my female sensibility,

“where all the sirens, nymphs, and sea-goddesses were waiting for us.”

Which is why I often capture art before I fully understand its meaning. Today I do. I hope I can inspire other females to take such a journey like mine and help their psyches!

A feminine soul to be precise. I know this story holds both something for animus and anima. It indeed symbolically speaks of a wedding or bringing together of both the animus and anima within each of us. It is bringing together opposites.

The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz begins with a lovely image. A star above two figures; a male ~ the sun and a female ~ the moon. This may be uniting both together with the bird of peace, the place where one may find the Holy Grail.

I believe it to be found within our individual hearts. It is another lovely image to ponder.

Coniunctio

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Reflection/ Notes

Jung’s alchemical studies were derived, in part, from the works of Gerhard Dorn, a 16th-century alchemist. In “The Conjunction,” Jung Wrote, “Dorn’s caelum, which corresponds to the stone, was on the one hand a liquid (blue) that could be poured out of a bottle and on the other the Microcosm itself.

For the psychologist it is the self-man as he is, and the indescribable and superempirical totality of the same man.” (CW 14:765) In Jung’s same essay published in Mysterium Coniunctionis, Jung describes caelum  as a heavenly substance containing all distinct forms and simultaneously the ultimate universal form; it symbolized a prefiguration of the soul. Jung also associated caelum with the blue center of Eastern mandalas. (CW 14:757)

The caelum and its function in alchemy, as inviting as they are, provide an avenue for further study. Jung further contended in the same essay, “Man himself is partly empirical, partly transcendental; he too is a (stone that is no stone). A “stone that is not stone” reflects Jung’s earlier experience with active imagination (also called trancing), where he (Jung) is sitting on me (stone).

From this perspective the pearl held within the black stone as the archetypal equivalent of a “stone that is not stone.” The human parallel implies that consciousness lies within the human body and that ‘the human heart is more than a blood pump.’ Like the pearl encased in stone, the heart is at the center of consciousness, which emanates from the divine.

~ Unveiling Sophia/ Heart Wisdom In An Age Of Technology by Anne Elizabeth Taylor

Comrades who whisper from the dead. Tall Drinks!!

image
Holly ready to send her laser… by Shyane

Part one:


Reading a few introductory books before entering The Red Book by CG Jung is a wise thing for me to do. Current historians and psychologists with a depth psychology twist are a nice tall drink. Understanding that Jung had a hard time deciding, in his life, whether to publish the book or not makes me feel as if I am violating his soul in reading it at all….after his death too. Whispering in my ear my entire quasi adult life makes me feel differently about this.

Reading these pre books I am affirmed in my conclusion. That he wrote the book for others as well as for himself.

Jung even encouraged his patients and friends to make a Red Book of their own. Comrades who whisper from the dead. Alchemy personified…but why me, why know and why share? This is a personal insight form a lay person that just happens to have a soul like everyone else… even those with PHDs! As an artist, with insight, I can try to write!

This complements this journey before I enter his world…personal yes but collectively through our mutual histories; past, present and future dreams. I wonder if the computer and blogging were around, in Jung’s time, if he too would use it freely to creatively express himself. I think he would have loved to. How brave we have become in sharing who we are!!
Just as I know there is evil in the world I know there is also goodness.

I have witnesses both, experienced both and been both-and I will continue- yet one thing I have not altered is my innocence. Maybe this is the reason for suffering and sorrow. I think I need to blend a little of the two, evil and goodness, within my cauldron. Stirring it and truly becoming a real adult in the real world. Speaking symbols and watering my essence of insight. You can take it or leave it.

“The Sun its shadow complete the work.”

~ Michael Maier Atlanta Fugiens-279 Book Jungian Psychoanalysis.

When posting on Facebook or WordPress I find that the best responses received by others are the authentic ones I post. All the news, politics and other things just don’t get the same input. Ok maybe the punk rock stuff gives me an edged kick but I was very innocent and rebelliously aesthetic back in the 1980s!!

It is uncomfortable for me to share who I am now, yet when I post my mug, something I created, or some personal insight; I usually get a satisfactory response. Even if it is quick and intuitively posted?? I think we are all looking for authenticity in our lives. Communication!!

As Jim Morrison from the Doors said, “Something Sacred.”

When we see it in another we feel it, we know it. This is the best of human communications. Though it may be rough, vague and juicy… it is what we need. We may even crave it. Collectively and/or as an individual. The mind, heart and soul is part of this equation. It is art, magic and touches those hidden places in us.

It can fall into the formation of math and logic. As effervescent sparks of knowledge. It moves through pain and pleasure as emotional release. It jumps and dances with “look at me” and “I see you.” It is normal, natural but hidden sometimes within the shadow of our sun. We have to go looking for it. It is when we share our authentic self or our aesthetic self… we all respond to it.

Pre books: Lament of The Dead Psychology after Jung’s Red Book ~ James Hillman & Sonu Shamdasani,/ The Red Book Liber Novus A readers Edition CG Jung Edited with an Introduction by Sonu Shamdasani./ The Seven Sermons to the Dead.

Attribution to the Dead and their whispers of life !

Hudley color sketch of flowers
Hudley Art

 Having a romp with your man the night before, and driving on a foggy morning the next day while listening to Jazz; takes orgasm to a whole new level!!

Time can be very strategic!! Life more precious as loved ones fade into the dark unknown. Courting the underworld and also that dark place of the analytical mind, I have found insight into something more. This time of the year screams this depth, scratching at my emotions while confronting me with nothing, a non-caring pain. This time of the year as dusk approaches even the smile of my child, the purring of cats seem to fade into a realm existential of the unreal and profound.


I am about to read The Seven Sermons to the Dead by Carl Jung~ attribution to Basilides. I have prepared for my journey for months with complementary books. I recently received The Red Book as a gift and this will add to my reflective study.

The Apostle said, ‘I lived without a law once,’ that is, before I came into this body, I lived in such a form of body as was not under a law, that of a beast namely, or a bird.[15]

My parents never really looked at death though they are now dead. My best and longest time friend… she too is gone from this life. So as I start this reading I hope to reflect as sermons to them as well !!
The day I began this journey of The Seven Sermons I sat at the pool side where son was swimming with his swim team. Two trees about twelve feet tall were before me. I sat comfortably.

The noises were overwhelming. Children crying and water splashing as women next to me talked about their problems. I then looked at the two trees. On every branch was a small bird; golden and chirping. Singing together and jumping. Everything else faded away but what I was viewing. I thought to myself,
“How can this be?”
One bird jumped down dancing towards me. Slowly, systematically and very consciously the bird came close to my foot and then turned around back up the tree. I then looked down for a second, thinking to take a picture. When I looked back the trees were empty.
I thought,
“How did so many birds fly away without a movement or sound?”
I now ask a question,
“How can so many die without a movement or sound’?”

Punk Rock Humor and the girly girls…

Punk Rock Historian & Colleague and Professional Consultant

Hudley Flipside

“And I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

Today is a day of going back and falling into another time of my life. It happens a lot at the age of 56. I was thinking about older age and youth. I have much more experience at being young then being older. Each day I wonder about what to do next.

With all the experience I have this is amazing to me. I can open the many doors from my past and jump in. I get pulled in like gravity too. I am closer to the stillness of my center now. As in a maṇḍala, which is basically a round image with the center within. Me.

Time seems slow and reflective. I don’t feel the need to grasp the ring from the merry-go-round. I feel like I am in Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death (1969). Like Billy Pilgrim I am in a place where I time travel back and forth.

Though my Tralfamadorians are silent and the only time I have a view of the future is by insight or in some vague dream. My punk rock life is on the same track.

Diving into each back issue of Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine brings up memories and I find that I need to share these images with others.

A affirmation of reality and fun.

The picture below is of Dee and Hilda who are on either side of a police officer in China Town at the Hong Kong Café. Lower right girl looking straight on is me.

I think it is Punk Rock humor about Los Angeles Coppers.

“Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.”

― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hong-Kong-Cafe-China-Town-Los-Angeles/85219892243

Living Dead Hands

I am still riding the wave of the flu. Today I am drinking some Burgundy wine in a small crystal glass. The warmth of the drink warms me along with the fire in the fireplace. Even though a son follows me around the house and laughs as he touches my arm with his cold “living dead hands”… we laugh and I have time to write the daily WordPress prompt.

DSC01667

When I reflect and look over the vast amount of ways to learn I focus on individuals more than an educational system. The people I respect and learn from are those that learn by their own means. I often reflect on the MASTERS OF HUMAN LIFE… William Blake, Thomas Paine and Carl Jung.

Though Carl Jung had a vast and strong academic education he also had a separate very independent education going on at the same time.

“Reading and reflecting” is what suits me best because social stimuli and peer pressure both turn me off. I read books by many different authors on many different subjects. I like it this way best because  I can set my own inward goals. I am not studying to be a doctor, nurse or accountant or engineer. I am a philosopher.

My chosen field is love,  I am a philosopher of love.

DSC01668

I have been through university study and I learned a great deal. I find that politics get involved as one climbs higher in the education system.

Child’s play. I guess one has to really desire it. If the love of your chosen field is a love that is worth the sacrifices ; such as your identity. At times it is… but for me it is not a valid argument anymore. I say no,

DSC01665

The greatest reward is to study on ones own and come to knowledge on your own terms.  A good grade, an acknowledged pat on the back from a friend is just not the same. I never feel alone while reading a book, researching a subject, listening to music or when writing… but I often feel alone and frustrated around people because they are awkward at loving what they say they love and are so darn weird.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/12/08/learning-style/

Carl Jung Quote from his book Memories, Dreams, Reflections

An ethical obligation: To the female journey and her male partner / animus.

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While riding the trail of my thoughts and goals I came upon a post that says that “blogging is a waste of time.” I do not agree with this point of view. Which takes me back to my obligation. Also, I get pulled into reconsidering my work as a writer.

Do I write for free, or do I write to help and join in? I want to write with value, integrity, and financial gain. I like getting paid for my work. So, this year I will decline writing for free for others. I do still do things for some special friends.

Yet here I write to promote and express my dreams on my blog. I may find ways to author my own books on subjects from the past, present or future, but not for free anymore.

I am not asking for freelance pay as so much per word but something that makes me feel valued and appreciated for my expertise and experience. It is a kaleidoscope of wheeling and dealing

Thanks

“… to do something for its own sake and not for the sake of another human being – runs counter to feminine nature and often can be achieved only with effort.”

    ~Emma Jung on the Animus

I often wonder why I write and create at all: for whom and why? I struggle with this.  As I am sure all individuals who create do. I mean who cares?

I love Carl Jung because he supports the individual’s pursuit in becoming aware and becoming whole. He does this for each individual his magic touches.

He gave meaning out of the chaos of my life and put me on the right path; towards the light.

The quote below wakes me to my responsibility to my ethical obligation.

I see him as an elder or father. For years now his books have been on my shelves waiting for me to hold them and reflect on the words of a wise friend and counselor.

    “That is what we usually neglect to do. We allow the images to rise up and maybe we wonder about them, but that is all. We do not take the trouble to understand them, let alone draw ethical conclusion from them.

This stopping-short conjures up the negative effects of the unconscious. It is equally a grave mistake to think that it is enough to gain some understanding of the images and that knowledge can here make a halt. Insight into them must be converted into an ethical obligation.

Not to do so is to fall prey to the power principle and this produces  dangerous effects which are destructive not only to others but even to the knower.

These images of the unconscious place a great responsibility upon a man. Failure to understand them, or a shirking of ethical responsibility, deprives him of his wholeness and imposes a painful fragmentariness of his life.”

~ Carl Jung