Jungian Blogger: Heidekolb’s Blog

There are several thousand Jungian Analysts; as far as I can tell, Heidi Kolb is the only one who is an active blogger. (Please let me know if you know of others). Her articles have accompanying images (I think the right brain is usually under-emphasized by Jungian authors) and are written in depth….

In the excerpted blog post, she writes about The Red Book; surprisingly, although there are many references to the Red Book now on the internet, there are almost no websites that write about it in depth.

Excerpt from June 27, 2010

Honor thy Devil and Trust thy Body
C.G.Jung~The Red Book Reflections

Jung never wanted to be the authority so many turned him into in his later years. But he showed us a way. And the way leads into the invisible world of the unconscious. Jung tells us of his meeting with the Red One, an imaginal figure in one of his fantasies. Imaginal but equally real as the ego world, he is to be met with respect and openness. Inner figures have a way of responding the way they are being met. Jung writes in the RB : “I know just as little who you are, as you know who I am”…..Surely this Red One was the devil, but my devil…I earnestly confronted my devil and behaved with him as with a real person. This I have learned in the Mysterium to take seriously every unknown wanderer who personally inhabits the inner world, since they are real because they are effectual.”

Disregarding, ignoring or pathologizing inner figures prevents the development of an authentic center of authority within us. Our inner knowing gets pushed further into the dark forest of the unconscious. It moves outside the grasp of psyche, but may settle deep within the cells & structures of our body and if we are lucky, yes, if we are lucky, the body develops symptoms. Every symptom has a story to tell and its meaning needs to be understood. We may have our moods, our little episodes of madness, a particular sensitive day with erratic behaviors. For centuries, women in particular have been pathologized as “hysterical”, nowadays as “borderline” or just as “hypersensitive” or “fragile.”

Link to full article