That Fish in Jung’s Red Book

 

Jung-red-book-fish-55
From the Red Book, Page 55

 

(translation of text above image:)

One word that was never spoken.
One light that was never lit up.
An unparalleled confusion.
And a road without end.

Footnote 128, on Page 55:

The solar barge is a common motif in ancient Egypt. The barge was seen as the typical means of movement of the sun. In Egyptian mythology, the Sun God struggled against the monster Aphophis, who attempted to swallow the solar barge as it traveled across the heavens each day. In Transformations and Symbols of the Libido (1912).

Jung discussed the Egyptian “living sun-disc” (CW B, §I53) and the motif of the sea monster (§ 549f). In his I952 revision of this text, he noted that the battle with the sea monster represented the attempt to free ego-consciousness from the grip of the unconscious (Symbols of Transformation, CW 5, §539). 

The solar barge resembles some of the illustrations in the Egyptian Book of the Dead (ed. E. A. Wallis Budge [London: Arkana, I899 / I985]), i.e., the vignettes on pp. 390,400, and 404).

The oarsman is usually a falcon-headed Horus. The night journey of the sun God through the underworld is depicted in the Amduat, which has been seen as symbolic process of transformation. [See Theodor Abt and Erik Hornung, Knowledge for the Afterlife. The Egyptian Amduat-A Quest for Immortality (Zurich: Living Human Heritage Publications, 2003).]

Jung-red-book-solar barge

5 Comments

  1. Susan: Good point. While this image from the Red Book may not depict the battle/struggle with the unconscious, the quotation itself is accurate. Perhaps Jung was swimming along with the Unconscious when he drew this?

  2. Yes, Sparker, Jung was at least ambivalent, and often frightened, of his own depths. (I love Susan’s comment.)

  3. The red book is simply not that helpful to anyone that hasn’t gone through the yearly long process of deep inner work (with tons of shadow work) which, if successfully made, awakens one’s soul and heart on levels unknown before.

    The battle with the sea monster is truly an ordeal every true mystic or anyone who is to awaken their soul must go through, sooner or later.
    It is not as simple as a dream, or astral imaginations,
    but a true struggle beyond both the physical, astral and mental planes.

    This is truly a topic of experiential knowledge, that only few reach.

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