Jung’s “black books” have already been published and reveal the following

If in 2009 the publication of Liber Novus (red book) was little more than a cultural event of great relevance, the current release to the market of black books of Jung is something that not everyone expected and that has been lived with expectation. They are called transformation notebooks and were written by the famous Swiss psychiatrist between 1913 and 1932.

Now, what is this disturbing work with such an evocative and disturbing title about? To understand its impact we must understand that This is a completely unpublished work by Carl Jung. Originally they were a set of handwritten diaries in which he reflected an exercise in self-exploration, which consisted of neither more nor less than confronting his unconscious.

It is an analysis of your fantasies and visions in a waking state. They are diaries, but in them We will discover a delicate, exhaustive and meticulous work of research about their mental states and their possible relationship with the entire broad cosmology defined by Jung himself.

What do Jung’s “Black Books” contain?

The truth is that the publication of the black books Jung’s work would not make sense if his work had not also been published first. Red Book either Liber Novus. The latter is perhaps the most controversial work of the Swiss psychiatrist. So much so that, after his death, his family kept this manuscript locked up in a house in Küsnacht, in the suburbs of Zurich.

They didn’t want anyone to read what was in those strange, complex and intimate pages. It is even said that he Red Book It was little more than a fabulous alchemical exercise of a privileged mind who sought to travel to the underworld to save his soul.

The end of the First World War and his disagreements with Sigmund Freud left him in a state of deep disappointment that prompted him to navigate the spiritual, the prophetic and even the mystical. I longed to find answers and meaning in a world that showed its most violent and irrational side.

Thus, it is interesting to know that Carl Jung wrote at the same time his Liber Novus and its black books. On the one hand, while he meditated and let himself be carried away by psychonautical techniques to make contact with his dreams, he reflected his analysis in black books as a personal diary and draft. And on the other hand, she transcribed part of those analyzes in his Red Book, accompanying them with illustrations.

A very special publication

The publisher in charge of publishing the black books of Jung is the Philemon Foundation. It consists of an elegant seven-volume edition meticulously crafted and prepared by Sonu Shamadasani, who was also in charge of editing at the time. Liber Novus.

The first volume is an introduction that serves as a guide to the next six books. In the latter, we will find a series of writings accompanied by vivid drawings from which Jung tried to explore his unconscious through visionary imagination, writing and painting.

We will also delve into reflections on his own psychological development and we will also discover the evolution of his theory of analytical psychology. As a curiosity, The reader will also be able to discover in the pages of these volumes, the relationship triangular between him, Emma Jung and Toni Wolff.

The first was his wife and the second, Antonia Anna Wolff, first his patient and, later, his lover and Jungian analyst, an indispensable pillar in his daily work. In fact, this young woman went on to publish interesting essays on the female psyche, incorporating the archetypes of the Amazon, the mother, the courtesan and the medium.

Jung’s “Black Books”, a journey into the interior

The black books Jung reveal visionary encounters that the Swiss psychiatrist had with mythological entities. Among them was Phanes the star god, Ha the sorcerer and also a decisive figure for him: Philemon, the wise magician who became his internal guru.

These experiences in the form of vivid imagination and dreamlike experiences intensified during the First World War.

Carl Jung was trying to find meaning in everything he was experiencing and, to do so, what he did was deliberately evoke a fantasy in a waking state and then enter it like someone crossing a canvas and trying to understand the symbolism of that abstract painting and surreal.

They reveal a message left for humanity

At this point a doubt arises. What message have they left for humanity? black books by Carl Jung?

The truth is that there is something we must understand about the theory of the unconscious of the father of analytical psychology. The unconscious does not only inhabit our memory or that collective legacy that unites all of humanity: there are creative and transforming seeds in it.

What does this mean? It means that in that transformative journey within himself, what Jung longed for was to find answers to evolve, to find enlightenment and, therefore, freedom. In a turbulent context like the one that surrounded him, he longed for wisdom, meaning and transcendence.

The publication of these books in the current social moment is decisive. Its message is simple and clear: we must reach a higher level of consciousness, build a better work as humanity.

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