Nefastos wrote:I too (?) consider the Red Book along with the modern books on occultism, for it is magical, creative, rough & unfinished in the same way, often balancing on the thin line between adoration and pompous hubris.
Yeah, I have the same opinion. In my interpretation,
The Red Book dramatically oscillates between Jung basically attempting to become the saviour of Europe (or, perhaps, humanity in general), followed by crushing depression and hopelessness when his rather absurd arrogance fails. Actually, I find it interesting that you haven’t read the whole thing, as it seems to me that Jung’s behaviour in Liber Primus and Liber Secundus are almost written to be a caricature of the egomania that he viciously attacks in Scrutinies. I don’t think Jung ever allowed anyone to read
The Red Book – at most, he allowed a few people to look at a couple of pages – and so he was presumably the only audience intended. It, therefore, seems possible to me that Jung was attempting to emphasise to himself how his noble intentions and insight could be ignored or perverted. For example, at the start of Liber Secundus, Jung mentions that one who cannot descend from the heights is sick and brings torment to himself and others, yet towards the end of Liber Secundus, Jung builds a tower, declares himself a god, and refuses to descend.
I think the best example of the “thin line between adoration and pompous hubris” you mention is the following passage from Scrutinies, where Philemon's description of Jung seems to characterise him as simultaneously the most superior and most inferior:
“You are your soul's eunuch, who protects her from Gods and men, or protects the Gods and men from her. Power is given to the weak man, a poison that paralyzes even the Gods, like a poison sting bestowed upon the little bee whose force is far inferior to yours.” (Reader’s Edition, 498)
'Oh Krishna, restless and overpowering, this mind is overwhelmingly strong; I think we might as easily gain control over the wind as over this.'