Jung And The Divine Madness

“Give me your hand, my soul almost forgotten, what a warmth gives me the joy of seeing you again, you my soul so long disavowed Life brought me back to you My soul, it is with you that the journey must continue with you I want to walk and climb to my loneliness.”

This is how Jung speaks to his soul in the remarkable book he has dedicated to interior scholars, the Red Book or Liber Novus. (source)C. G. Jung, The Red Book In my opinion, this is an unavoidable work that must be included in the ideal library of enlightenment. This book is a source of light. Any researcher can make his bedside book. One of those we take on a desert island. The excerpt quoted shows Jung exultant with joy, after a heavy and futile period when he denied himself, where the excess of egotism nearly lost him. He develops his descent into hell in an earlier version where he still addresses his soul:

“How thick  was my former darkness! How violent my passion was, how selfish, subjugated by all the demons of ambition, thirst for glory, greed, harshness of heart, how totally ignorant I have been, life dragged me outside, I was consciously trying to get away from you, my soul, and I did it all these years. Well, I thought I was right. I thought you were lost, it seemed to me sometimes that I was the lost one , not you. I was walking on the daytime path, you walked by my side, invisible, and you led me step by step, ingeniously assembling one piece to another.”  (source)C. G. Jung, The Draft

To find one’s soul is the best thing that can happen to a being of light. Jung experienced this bestowal. He feels the need to welcome his soul as one welcomes a lover, with simple, human and joyful words. Yet he knows that past suffering is not excluded from the future. With clairvoyance, he evokes the next step: loneliness.

The path of great loneliness

The path of light is more aptly called the path to light. Because he is not without pitfalls and doubts. It winds, the slope is steep, the ground uneven and tricky. The desire to drop everything comes almost at every step, when we realize that the more we progress, the more the companions are scarce, the more we face the inexorable solitude of the peaks.

The human being, it is said, is a gregarious animal. I do not know if it’s right. We are human by birth, not by choice. And we are gregarious, because loneliness is overwhelming. In the herd, it was hot. We see nothing, too many unknowns hide the light, but precisely. We are good. We do not think about anything. Except to consume pleasure in the box, totally ridiculous gadgets, designer clothes that are in the layers, connected objects to disconnect from ourselves, our immortal soul, the way to go further. Jung names this the spirit of the time. He opposes it to the spirit of the depths, which alone allows the encounter with the soul. But at what cost ! We must face the crossing of the desert.

“When the desert begins to become fertile, it produces strange plants, you will think you are crazy, and in a way you will be truly mad.” Inasmuch as the Christianity of this time is deprived of madness, it is deprived of the divine life. Let us know what the ancients taught us: madness is divine, it is unmistakable: when you enter the world of the soul, you are like mad, and a doctor would swear that you are sick. If you do not know what divine madness is, free yourself from judgment and wait for the fruits, but know that there is a divine madness that is nothing but the victory of the spirit of God. depths on the spirit of the time.” (source)C. G. Jung, The Red Book

So, of course, you are emptying around you, because no one, friends or acquaintance, can follow you on this solitary path where you walk alone. When the soul incarnates, when the soul takes control of the little self, the ego is expelled. So you go crazy. None of the rules that dictate the behavior of ordinary people no longer apply to you. It makes your loneliness impregnable, inevitable, unbearable. A terrible choice is offered to you. Continue on this path of great solitude, continue to rub shoulders with madness and abysses, or give up and join the flock.

“I woke up to see that all were still sleeping. So I went back to sleep,” said the sage. The sentence is attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, a great initiate before the Lord. We only lend to the rich. It’s not just him who could say that. How many times have I woken up too, how many times have I fallen asleep?

Choose Your Own Madness

“The theme of divine madness has a long tradition, and the classic reference is the discussion on this subject by Socrates: it is through madness “which is a gift of the gods, that the greatest goods are given to us.” (source)Plato, Phaedrus Socrates distinguishes four kinds of divine madness: 1- the prophecy inspired by the gods as practiced by the Pythia of Delphi 2- men tormented by ancient sins, who spread themselves in prophetic speeches, seeking their salvation in the prayer and adoration of the gods 3- the fact of being seized by the muses – the man who devotes himself to art, if he has not been touched by the madness of the muses, will never be a great poet 4- lovers.”  (source)The Red Book, op cit, note by Shonu Samdasani

There I am bad, because I notice that at one time or another of my life, I received the four kinds. Strangely, having always been crazy, I did not understand that my madness could take four aspects. Yet the cause is always the same: the advance of being in search of his soul, and the setbacks that this process inevitably engages. Tipping or blessings? If I believe Socrates, it is by divine madness that the greatest goods are given to us.

“In the Renaissance, the theme of divine madness was echoed by humanists like Erasmus: “As long as the soul uses the organs of the body, it is called healthy. But as soon as she remembers her former freedom and wants to escape from this dungeon, she is called sickly. And if she manages to escape, everyone is talking about madness.” Are they really crazy, those who succeed in this tour de force, live beyond the ordinary physical resources? “These people predict what is coming, master languages ​​and sciences they have never learned, and have in them, in a general way, something divine.” (source)The Red Book, op cit, note by Shonu Samdasani

Must we conclude that the gods are crazy? Judging by the course of the world they are supposed to settle, no doubt: they are down to earth. Only here, their madness makes them divine. Like us. And is not the normal man, who is thought to be sane, the archetype of the great mentally ill? If its ordinary stupidity is admitted by the greatest number, and even encouraged by the ruling elites, is it less foolish? Once the norm was enlightenment, today is sleep. Once madness was sacred, today it is disturbing. Once madness was respected, today we lock up mystics and prophets. To live happily, be morons.

This is the choice offered to you. Either you remain a moron, smug of complacency, overwhelmed by the system, plugged like everyone else, bounded in your deepest aspirations. Or you risk the inner adventure, seek the divine, go crazy and live alone. What is the most enviable? It’s up to you.