Many / One

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C. G. Jung: Letters, 1951-1961
Gerhard Adler and Aniela Jaffe, editors

1 "The 'imago Dei' [God-image], is the archetype of the self in us."

2 "The paths leading to a common truth are many. Therefore each of us has first to stand by his own truth, which is then gradually reduced to a common truth by mutual discussion. All this requires psychological understanding and empathy with the other's point of view. A common task for every group in quest of a common truth."

3 "That which is eternally present appears in the temporal order as a succession."

4 "Mandalas are also formed with the hands, danced, and represented in music (for instance Bach's 'Art of Fugue')….When a mandala is being formed, everything round and square known to man works on it too. But the impetus for its formation comes from the unconscious archetype."

5 "Looking at it in one way, we do indeed partake of divinity, as Christ himself pointed out when he said: 'Ye are gods.' (1 John 10:34)."

6 "Archetypes are forms of different aspects expressing the creative psychic background. They are and always have been numinous and therefore 'divine.' In a very generalizing way we can therefore define them as attributes of the creator. That would explain the compelling character of such inner perceptions."

7 "The archetypes are in us, and eternal." Charles Lamb, 'The Essays of Elia (1821)

8 "I find that all my thoughts circle round God like the planets round the sun, and are as irresistibly attracted by him. I would feel it the most heinous sin were I to offer any resistance to this compelling force."

9 "An old alchemist gave the following consolation to one of his disciples: 'No matter how isolated you are and how lonely you feel, if you do your work truly and conscientiously, unknown friends will come and seek you."

10 "God is certainly Being itself."

11 "Myth is pre-eminently a social phenomenon: it is told by the many and heard by the many. It gives the ultimately unimaginable religious experience an image, a form in which to express itself, and thus makes community life possible."

12 "There is no energy without opposites."

13 "The 'Holy Ghost' is an impelling force, creating wider consciousness and responsibility and thus enriched cognition. The real history of the world seems to be the progressive incarnation of the deity."

14 "Why do we ask about God at all? God effervesces in you and sets you to the most wondrous speculations."

15 "Synchronicity…is an all-pervading factor or principle in the universe, i.e., in the Unus Mundus [One World]."

16 "The realm of the psyche is immeasurably great and filled with living reality. At its brink lies the secret of matter and of spirit."

17 "Man (Anthropos) is the visible manifestation of the original One, i.e., God."

18 "Every self has the quality of belonging to the 'self of all selves,' and the self of all selves consists of individual selves."

19 "God is the One, the All."

20 "Everything that is stated or manifested by the psyche is an expression of the nature of things, whereof man is a part."

21 "Becoming conscious reconciles the opposites."

22 "Many paths lead to the central experience. But the nearer one gets to the centre the easier it is to understand the other paths that lead there."

23 "Whole numbers may well be the discovery of God's 'primal thoughts.'"

24 "The way to the cognition of God begins with the cognition of oneself."

25 "The psychological 'merit' (or rather, significance) of Christ consists in the fact that, as the 'firstling', he is the prototype of the integral man. This image, as history testifies, is numinous and can therefore be answered only by another numinosity. It touches the imago Dei, the archetype of the self in us, and thereby awakens it. The self is then 'constellated' and by virtue of its numinosity compels man toward wholeness, i.e., towards the integration of the unconscious or the subordination of the ego to a holistic 'will', which is rightly conceived to be 'God's will."

This body of quotes compiled by JoAnn Kite