The Red Book: A Reader's Edition (Philemon)

Before reading any further, note: This a review of the READER'S edition - and the Reader's Edition DOES NOT include the facsimile images (art and calligraphy) of the original "Red Book: Liber Novus." I suspect many of those who ordered the book unaware of this will be surprised and disappointed. This distinction was not made clear in Amazon pre-publication information. If you wish to see the original book in all its visual glory, pay the price and order the complete folio-sized facsimile edition.So, why then publish, and why purchase, a "Reader's Edition"? Why is the this edition important, even essential?Because the text of "Liber Novus" (as Jung formally titled his "Red Book") is really more important than the art. Jung experienced and recorded his visions and then composed his draft manuscript of Liber Novus before beginning on the art. The art and calligraphy came later, they were composed over the following 16 years or so. The text - compiled principally between 1914 and 1915, with a last section added in 1917 - is Jung's primary record of his extraordinary odyssey across the threshold of consciousness, and into the heart of mythopoetic vision. As he said: "This inner world is truly infinite, in no way poorer than the outer one. Man lives in two worlds." This is the journal of Jung's exploration of the inner world - and it ranks as one of the most important journeys of exploration in the record of human exploration. Dr. Shamdasani, who spent thirteen years editing Liber Novus for publication, has strongly suggested that one should read the text before even looking at the images. I agree.If you are ready to start that reading, there is another reason this "Reader's Edition" is an essential purchase: the big folio edition of "The Red Book: Liber Novus" is huge and physically very difficult to read. Holding it on your lap, or finding a way to prop it up and read it, is a painful task. God have mercy if you wear bifocals! This edition is formatted in a normal book size, and allows a more comfortable reading experience (if reading Liber Novus can ever be a "comfortable" experience). You will not be disappointed with the beauty of this smaller edition; it is bound "bible style" in soft faux leather with rounded corners, and printed using three colors of ink to add the distinctions in headings and text (this replicates the style of the folio edition). And of course, there is a marker ribbon sewn into the binding. I have no idea how such a finely crafted book can be sold at this price.But the text is much more difficult to meet than is the beautiful art. The calligraphy and artwork are immediately stunning, even overwhelming. I know - based on the several seminars about Liber Novus I have taught over the last three years - that most people simply never make it past this visual experience; they do not read Jung's account of what happened to him between 1913 and 1916.What confounds the reader now is the same issue that confronted Jung then: Though imaginative, mythic, apparently fictive, and ultimately subjective, what Jung met in his wanderings spoke with the voice of an objective fact. It was independent, ineffably ancient, and yet intimately and synchronously involved with human history. He perceived it as real, and the story it told had the tenor of a revelation. Without some introduction, some guiding insight into what the man was doing, most readers become quickly disoriented.To guide your first journey through Liber Novus, I highly suggest you start by reading (again) Jung's biographical memoir, "Memories, Dreams, Reflections." At very least, study again Chapter 6, "Confrontation with the Unconscious." Then closely read Shamdasani's very fine introductory essay that prefaces Jung's text in this Reader's Edition. Next, get Dr. Shamdasani's beautiful new book, "C. G. Jung: A Biography in Books" - you will see my full review of that volume on the Amazon product page. After that, there are several hours of free lectures online from my seminars on Liber Novus. Thousands of people have them found useful, and you can find them easily by searching online for "The Red Book Lectures" or "C.G. Jung and the Red Book."Then, read. Take it slowly, give it deep consideration. It is quite a journey.

This is the ultimate book! Jung is by far a standout; one of the greatest minds of all time. His works demonstrate clearly that civilization and we, as individuals must heal society. This begins by resisting the collective forces of powers that repress the consciousness that we were born to know. As individuals, we must step forth into fully understanding self.Here is the account of Jung's adventure into the unconscious... this; a foundation for all of his work is detailed in the final volume of Carl Gustav Jung's work. The book includes a copy of his handwritten manuscript (Swiss) as well as a translation by Sonu Shamdasani.For sixteen years, Jung worked on the book, experiencing the darkness and the light of his unconscious mind and developing lasting theories of archetypes, the collective unconscious, and of individuation.The original work was locked away... his heirs denied scholars access to the book -- for nearly 100 years, we, the public could not learn of Jung's experiences... experience that clearly brought about a shift into modern psychology... a psychology of real people undergoing an awakening, an evolution of thinking, a process of individuation.It is a huge book, a mystical book; including Jung's fabulous color illustrations... it is a medieval manuscript.Yet, if you've not read any of C. G. Jung's work, this is not where to begin. There is a lot of material in this book, and Jung's works of course include volumes.The Undiscovered SelfBegin with self-reflection and your personality... who are you? Use Briggs-Myers personality sorter and begin to know who you are and how that came t be... read Jung's earlier published works... it may take 10 or 20 years to evolve a comprehensive knowledge of this work... I've been at it for 40. Time is no the barrier... it is me that needed time to get it that I am needy for God's blessings.Explore the duality of your psyche... set out knowing that you must face your deepest fears. In the end, the skeletons in your closet must be aired.Begin with God... Jung's works forge a path to knowing that the human psyche is "by nature religious."If you want to know about reality, about living fully conscious life, then delve into Jung... and come about it then to read "The Red Book."Even to just thumb through the pages causes some to enter an altered state of consciousness...Like a mescaline experience.Here is a brief description of the fantastic inner world that awaits you:CONFRONTATION WITH THE UNCONSCIOUS... THE FINAL FRONTIERSummary of the revelation of Carl JungSeptem Sermones ad Mortuos:The First Sermon to the Deadby Carl Gustav Jung, 1916Pleroma is everywhere completely and without bounds nor end.The Pleroma, which is endless and eternal, has no qualities, because it has all qualities. Even in the smallest subatomic particle known to science, the Pleroma is present without any bounds, eternally and completely. Yet, the smallest to greatest material of the universe have no place in the Pleroma.Jung on INDIVIDUATION:"We, also, are the total Pleroma; for figuratively the Pleroma is an exceedingly small, hypothetical, even non-existent point within us, and also it is the limitless firmament of the cosmos about us.""When we strive for the good and the beautiful, we thereby forget about our essential being, which is differentiation, and we are victimized by the qualities of the Pleroma which are the pairs of opposites."IndividuationIndividuality is the higher self. The process of getting there is individuation. Individuality is in an evolution. Individuality does not ever die nor dissolve unless under special circumstances, the individual ceases to be, by choice. Individuality remains throughout incarnations.Individuality learns from experiences.Personality does not know (usually) why nor how, nor about the incarnated history... as with every birth memory of the past is gone... we come into the world, babes in the flesh, crying and needy. Yet, individuality has an overview of all incarnations and of some knowledge of the meaning of everything past.Individuation is a process; becoming aware of oneself--that is of your composition. Individuation is the way into discovery of a true, inner self.The Red BookLiber Novus (printed on The Red Book - like a subtitle) means in Latin "New Book" but for Jung it meant the new way. Jung certainly put it there to say, "This is the book of the new way." The new way book.I've met and interacted with more than ten thousand people in my time here... during this life.I've come to know that we all make choices for reasons.ChoicesTWO STATES...1. Nothing exists....2. Everything exists.It is logically impossible for God to not exist, therefore, everything exists is "more" correct, as it may seem at first. However, if we'd take into consideration potentials, can we bet on it that everything exists?I'd say no; easily, yet, I cannot so easily discount this logic with a fact as simple as God is.Facts add up in my mind to that God creates, always. Therefore, there is more to be than already is. This will always be the case, I'd say. So, neither argument is true in my opinion.Wait then, can there be another course of thinking that is more accurate?THREE STATES...1. Nothing exists....2. Everything exists....3. Multiplicity is.While God is a singular being (although not a being in the sense of what we'd normally propose as being), we seen to perceive Him as three or more differentiated beings (aspects of one).Christianity is what I know best... so, I'll say from that experience that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are one God. Yet, we say they are also three in unity, as one God.Anima and AnimusIn reality, every female and every male is a psychological amalgamation of feminine and masculine characteristics (a short description of contrasexuality).Anima (feminine) plus Animus (masculine) contrasexuality derives from the ultimate triune... Eros (masculine--independent archetype: god of love) and Logos (feminine dependant archetype: the principle governing the cosmos) that forms a soul-image.In a simple statement, two bring about a third and the amalgamation of the two in each.It is simple, yet elegant too.Look at love vs. hate, and then wonder, what is the third aspect of that duality (autonomy vs. unity)?Is it not choices?Choices come about in the differentiated world of men and women.If analyzed to their core, each choice is a factor of two opposing views (or two plus two more, and perhaps another pair and so on).So, I'm going this way... Multiplicity is.I'm not one to battle logic and for me this is logical, entirely.Living differentiated, we easily experience yin vs. yang duality (love vs. hate, etc.) and we therefore come to a crossroads and we make a decision based on morality and ethics, desires, or needs... needs being the most important factor; yet the lowest functioning of reasons for decisions. It may seem to me or to you that choices therefore are based on logic also... I'd disagree after giving this more thought. Morality and ethics, true are evolved in thought and experience. However, desires and needs are spontaneous more so than cognitive.Thus, I'd venture this guess: most people make choices based on spontaneous impulses."After the first "fall," the divine consciousness descended to the level of the divided consciousness; now after another "fall", it has fallen even further, into the depths of the unconscious; it has been "forgotten." It is now humanity's privilege to discover the potential realms of human existence and face the great challenge of the "ascension of consciousness" through the Man-God-Spirit transformation."-- Gnosticism And The Descent Of The Soul.For this reason, Jung forged a path to reconciliation... to healing... into the divine again. Read him if you dare.Eric