Grounded in the natural philosophy of the Middle Ages, alchemy formed a bridge: on the one hand into the past, to Gnosticism, and on the other into the future, to the modern psychology of the unconscious.
Carl JungRead
I cannot define for you what God is. I can only say that my work has proved empirically that the pattern of God exists in every man and that this pattern has at its disposal the greatest of all his energies for transformation and transfiguration of his natural being. Not only the meaning of his life but his renewal and his institutions depend on his conscious relationship with this pattern of his collective unconscious.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Carl Jung suggests that while we may not define God, the divine pattern exists within everyone and is essential for personal transformation.
In this quote, Carl Jung emphasizes that the concept of God cannot be easily defined but rather understood through the inner experiences and patterns found in every individual. He argues that this divine pattern is instrumental in facilitating profound changes in a person's life, shaping their identity and institutions, and pointing to the significance of forming a conscious relationship with this collective unconscious that connects us all. It highlights the importance of internal exploration for personal growth and renewal.
Themes
GodTransformationCollective UnconsciousRenewalPattern
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about spirituality and personal growth.
More from Carl Jung
All quotes →The majority of my patients consisted not of believers but of those who had lost their faith.
Carl JungRead
Complexes are psychic contents which are outside the control of the conscious mind. They have been split off from consciousness and lead a separate existence in the unconscious, being at all times ready to hinder or to reinforce the conscious intentions.
Carl JungRead
We are in a far better position to observe instincts in animals or in primitives than in ourselves. This is due to the fact that we have grown accustomed to scrutinizing our own actions and to seeking rational explanations for them.
Carl JungRead
From the viewpoint of analytic psychology, the theatre, aside from any aesthetic value, may be considered as an institution for the treatment of the mass complex.
Carl JungRead
I have treated many hundreds of patients. Among those in the second half of life - that is to say, over 35 - there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life.
Carl JungRead
Similar quotes
Investing a lot of time and money in external beauty and caring little about internal beauty.
Paulo CoelhoRead
Is it astonishing that, like children trying to catch smoke by closing their hands, philosophers so often see the object they would grasp fly before them?
Henri BergsonRead
It is far easier to fight with sin in public than to pray against it in private.
Charles SpurgeonRead
That your enemies have been created is God's doing; that they hate you and wish to ruin you is their own doing. What should you say about them in your mind? "Lord be merciful to them, forgive them their sins, put the fear of God in them, change them!" You are loving in them not what they are, but what you would have them to become.
Saint AugustineRead
Do not do an immoral thing for moral reasons.
Thomas HardyRead
How to forgive the world for its beauty, which merely disguises its ugliness; for its gentleness, which merely cloaks its cruelty; for its illusion of continuity, seamlessly, as the night follows the day, so to speak- whereas in reality life is a series of brutal raptures, falling upon your defenseless hands, like the blows of a woodman's axe?
Salman RushdieRead