Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido. A Contribution to the History of the Evolution of ThoughtJung, C. G. (Carl Gustav)
Philosophy
Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido. A Contribution to the History of the Evolution of Thought
Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav)
Libido (Psychology); Mother and child; Psychoanalysis; Subconsciousness; Symbolism (Psychology)
The invocation is, as one sees, almost inexhaustible in light and fire
attributes, and can be likened in its extravagance only to the
synonymous attributes of love of the mystic of the Middle Ages. Among
the innumerable texts which might be used as an illustration of this, I
select a passage from the writings of Mechthild von Magdeburg
(1212–1277):
“O Lord, love me excessively and love me often and long; the oftener
you love me, so much the purer do I become; the more excessively you
love me, the more beautiful I become; the longer you love me, the more
holy will I become here upon earth.”
God answered: “That I love you often, that I have from my nature, for
I myself am love. That I love you excessively, that I have from my
desire, for I too desire that men love me excessively. That I love you
long, that I have from my everlastingness, for I am without end.”[131]
The religious regression makes use indeed of the parent image without,
however, consciously making it an object of transference, for the incest
horror[132] forbids that. It remains rather as a synonym, for example,
of the father or of God, or of the more or less personified symbol of
the sun and fire.[133] Sun and fire—that is to say, the fructifying
strength and heat—are attributes of the libido. In Mysticism the
inwardly perceived, divine vision is often merely sun or light, and is
very little, or not at all, personified. In the Mithraic liturgy there
is found, for example, a significant quotation:
Ἡ δὲ πορεία τῶν ὁρωμένων θεῶν διὰ τοῦ δίσκου, πατρός μου, θεοῦ
φανήσεται.[134]
Hildegarde von Bingen (1100–1178) expresses herself in the following
manner:[135]
“But the light I see is not local, but far off, and brighter than the
cloud which supports the sun. I can in no way know the form of this
light since I cannot entirely see the sun’s disc. But within this
light I see at times, and infrequently, another light which is called
by me the living light, but when and in what manner I see this I do
not know how to say, and when I see it all weariness and need is
lifted from me, then too, I feel like a simple girl and not like an
old woman.”
Symeon, the New Theologian (970–1040), says the following:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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