Carl Jung: “I began to understand that the goal of psychic development is the circumambulation of the self.” I began to understand that the goal of psychic development is the circumambulation of the self. Uniform development exists, at most, at the beginning; later, everything points toward the centre. This insight gave me stability, and gradually…
Before I discovered alchemy, I had a series of dreams which repeatedly dealt with the same theme. Beside my house stood another, that is to say, another wing or annex, which was strange to me. Each time I would wonder in my dream why I did not know this house, although it had apparently always…
Carl Jung at Bollingen “I pump the water from the well. I chop the wood and cook the food. These simple acts make man simple; and how difficult it is to be simple!” from: Memories, Dreams, Reflections Before enlightenment chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment chop wood, carry water. Zen Proverb Carl…
1935 Stage 3 of Carl Jung’s Bollingen: Adding a courtyard and a loggia “I added a courtyard and a loggia by the lake, which formed a fourth element that was separated from the unitary threeness of the house.” This fourth element opens the self up to nature and the sky, to the divine and…
1927 Bollingen: Stage 2, the Family House From Mark Larson, “The Architecture of Bollingen” The second phase, built in 1927, begins to resemble more a Family House when a two-story wing was added to the lone tower. The house now opened itself more to the lake, aligning roughly with the shoreline, thereby creating an…
The Rejected Stone The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief corner stone. Psalm 118: 22 From Memories, Dreams, Reflections The story of how this stone came to me is a curious one. I needed stones for building the enclosing wall for the so-called garden, and ordered them from the quarry near Bollingen….
The Inscriptions on the Stone at Bollingen In Bollingen, silence surrounds me almost audibly, and I live “in modest harmony with nature.” Thoughts rise to the surface which reach back into the centuries, and accordingly anticipate a remote future. Here the torment of creation is lessened; creativity and play are close together.In 1950 I made…
Merlin Tutoring Arthur, 14th Century Merlin and Mercurius Merlin represents an attempt by the medieval unconscious to create a parallel figure to Parsifal. Parsifal is a Christian hero, and Merlin, son of the devil and a pure virgin, is his dark brother. In the twelfth century, when the legend arose, there were as yet…
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul. Oliver Wendell Holmes On this rock I will build my church. Matthew 16:18 There seems to be a correspondence between where I am working with stone and what I am working on within. Last summer and fall, after being away from Alaska and home for five…