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From Jung’s Red Book

Each of us received something unexpected for Christmas, a genuine surprise. Trish received Jung’s Red Book. It was created between the years of 1914-1930 and was, by his own description, a record of his “confrontation with the unconscious.” It weighs nearly 9 pounds, measures 15.7 x12x 1.9 inches, has 212 colored illustrations.Unfortunately, it’s written in German, but in a calligraphy as stunning as the illustrations.

There are 178 pages in English called Liber Novus – New Book – that include an introduction to Jung’s work and some translations from Jung’s German entries. As explained in the intro: “The overall theme of the book is how Jung regains his soul and overcomes the contemporary malaise of spiritual alienation. This is ultimately achieved through enabling the rebirth of a new image of God in his soul and developing a new worldview in the form of a psychological and theological cosmology.” The entries depict Jung’s process of individuation, an important component in synchronicity, as well as the genesis of his concept of the Self, the collective unconscious, his concept of archetypes, his experiences with precognition. The dreams and inner dialogues really give you a sense of how he confronted his unconscious.

This illustration reminds me of the tree of life. You can get a sense of the calligraphy on the left – in German. But you don’t have to read German to be struck by this image.

From a section called, Soul and God: “Dreams pave the way for life, and they determine you without you understanding their language. One would like to learn this language, but who can teach and learn it? Scholarliness alone is not enough; there is a knowledge of the heart that gives deeper insight.”

While looking for a special Christmas present for Rob, I was poking around on butternut squash’s blog, where she writes about her fascinating trips to Nepal. Not only does she buy jewelry there from the local people, she is involved in creating a library for local schools. Her Tibetan jewelry and other wares from that country are exhibited on her other blog, where I first saw a Tibetan singing bowl and knew that was the gift. Rob will be teaching a new meditation class in January and I could just hear the rich tone of a singing bowl at the beginning and end of each class.

So I called Jeri one day from the parking lot of a grocery store. She asked me some questions about Rob’s personality, his interests,and said she would find the right bowl for him. She later said she tested 20 bowls and found the one she thought would fit him. When she mailed the gift, she enclosed an explanatory letter: “Other than clothing and a prayer wheel, the singing bowl might have been a monk’s only possession. Everything that the monk needed he could obtain with his bowl because it was his begging bowl and the bowl out of which every meal was consumed. So it is very vividly represents both the physical life of the owner in providing for his physical requirements as well as the spiritual life of the owner as a meditation tool.”

The bowl is old and bowls like the one you’re about to see and hear aren’t being produced anymore. Jeri says that “old” means it was made anywhere between 1800 and 1950. She also mentioned that sometimes the monk who owned the bowl may drop in for a visit. We’re hopeful!

Here are the bowl and the tone:

Happy 2011!!