Jiva wrote: Obviously, Jung is not at risk of being killed by the machines, but rather by over-identifying with the characters he embodies and subsequently becoming intoxicated by the illusion – i.e. becoming the Christ and not a Christ. Indeed, one could argue – as Jung would later do – that Nietzsche had a similar problem of over-identification with Zarathustra.
And Crowley with Antichrist. This poses an interesting problem which can be seen in the next chapter clearly.
Chapter three is called On the Service of the Soul.
Jung mentions dreams he had to write down and in the footnote it says that they led him to natural sciences and that they are to be found in "Memories", p.105f. Then he starts to whine to his soul that he apparently can sense, but not yet trust. "My foot hesitates to follow you: into what darkness does your path lead?" It is clear that Jung has to follow, but he can't follow, perhaps because this life without the soul is meaningless, but on the other hand it's precisely the soul that makes it so. Jung asks for a sign, for a
meaning, but can't get it from the outside. His attitude is one of resignation and sort of divinatory passivity. "Must I also learn to do without meaning? If this is what you demand, then so be it. This hour belongs to you." There is a sense of sacrifice - Jung wants to give himself to his soul, but the price is too great, because he has to give himself without the guarantee that there actually is a meaning for it. "What is there when there is no meaning? Only nonsense, or madness, it seems to me. Is there also a supreme meaning? Is that your meaning, my soul? I limp after you on crutches of understanding, I am a man and you stride like a God." Here Jung starts to accept that his intelligence cannot grasp it's own meaning, but defining the problem doesn't make it go away.
"I understand, I must not think either, should thought, too, no longer be? I should give myself completely into your hands - but who are you? I do not trust you." Next, Jung seems to finally find trust in his soul by recognizing it at one of his friends... "I know it is ignoble to doubt you. You know how difficult it is for me to set aside the beggar's pride I take in my own thought. I forgot you are also one of my friends and have the first right to my trust." But after this part... "My joy at finding you again was not genuine. I also recognize that the scornful laughter in me was right. I must learn to love you." ...the footnote mentions that in Black Book Jung noted that "here, someone stands beside me and whispers terrible things into my ear: You write to be printed and circulated among people. You want to cause a stir through the unusual. Nietzsche did this better than you. You are imitating Saint Augustine." Also, the soul answers to Jung: "This fear testifies against me!" and Jung admits that it does, and "kills the holy trust between you and me". It seems that Jung is rushing things with his soul. His scared mind wants to be done with the surrendering business and tries to bluff it's way through by faking the holy peace. At the same time he well knows that he's doing just that. It seems that he has an idea what the union of higher and lower should be like, perhaps peaceful, loving, kind, something like that, and is not willing to take the risk of it not being the case. Also the whispering voice suggests that there might be a need to fit in society that's still setting limitations for his unconditional surrender. I get the feeling that the soul should be like something in Jung's mind and this is holding him back.
Now some sort of third person starts to speak. This reminds me of the magical formula where 1.You exalt yourself in prayer. 2.You let the God answer. 3.You are one with God. 4.God is in you. Like fire-water-air-earth. This third person would be step three:
"How hard is fate! If you take a step towards your soul, you will at first miss the meaning. You will believe that you have sunk into meaninglessness, into eternal disorder." We've been there, haven't we? "You will be right! Nothing will deliver you from disorder and meaninglessness since this is the other half of the world." I think it's interesting that here Jung seems to think in dualistic terms, like half the world is evil stuff and the other half is good stuff.
"Your God is child so long you are not childlike. Is the child order, meaning? Or disorder, caprice? Disorder and meaninglessness are the mother of order and meaning. Order and meaning are things that have become and are no longer becoming. You open the gates of the soul to let the dark flood of chaos flow into your order and meaning. If you marry the ordered to the chaos, you produce the divine child, the supreme meaning beyond meaning and meaninglessness." This kind of language disorder and meaninglessness are the mother of order and meaning" and "supreme meaning beyond meaning" is one hell of a swamp to drown in especially when discussing things in text as we can see in the Chaos-topic. This notion might be actual revelation, or it might still be part of the earlier bluff that doesn't want to let go. I get the feeling that the former might be true.
"You are afraid to open the door? I too was afraid, since we had forgotten that God is terrible. Christ taught: God is love. But you should know that love is also terrible."
"I spoke to a loving soul and as I drew nearer to her, I was overcome by horror and I heaped up a wall of doubt, and I did not anticipate that I thus wanted to protect myself from my fearful soul."
Here it's God who is terrible and soul who is fearful, like a violent angry man and a kind small girl, but Jung is somewhere else. It's not clear who is this "I" he refers to.
Later this soul-entity -or Jung's subconscious- claims that Christ did not overcome the temptation to good and reason and thus succumbed to cursing. He insists that he shouldn't succumb to any temptation but to do everything of his own will: "then you will be free and beyond Christianity." This "beyond Christianity" is interesting. The way this third person talks through Jung here reminds me a lot of Liber al vel Legis and it seems that in both cases Nietzsche and going beyond Christianity are important forces in play. Here Jung's soul definitely shows some satanic qualities.
Then he finds out that he must love what horrifies him. Here it seems that it is actually lower Jung speaking again and not this third person higher entity. He finally finds the reasoning to resignation in "in everything regarding your salvation and the attainment of mercy, you are dependent on your soul. Thus no sacrifice can be too great for you." But still he has to reassure that it's not virtues but his soul he is after: "The slave to virtue finds the way as little as the slave to vices". Then he is finally ready to come back from the channeler-mode and closes the ritual with: "If you believe that you are the master of your soul, then become her servant. If you were her servant, make yourself her master, since she needs to be ruled. These should be your first steps."
Then for six days Jung could not hear the spirit of depths, did not want to. But on the seventh day it spoke to him: "look into your depths, pray to your depths, waken the dead". But Jung "stood helpless and did not know what I could do. I looked into myself, and the only thing I found within was the memory of earlier dreams, all of which I wrote down without knowing what good this would do. I wanted to throw everything away and return to the light of day. But the spirit stopped me and forced me back into myself."
The question of over-identification perhaps comes to play here. Once these gates are open it's not clear who is over-identifying with what since the neutrality of observer is itself neutralized. Maybe apollonian forces are those that rule the soul and dionysian those who submit to soul, but the soul is never clearly in-between, but always pulling the strings or letting the strings be pulled.