The Red Book: Carl Jung’s Revelations of the Inner Self

Group photo in front of Clark University–Sigmund Freud, G. Stanley Hall, C.G.Jung; Back row: Abraham A. Brill, Ernest Jones, Sandor Ferenczi; taken September 1909

Begun in 1914 and never finished, Carl Jung considered it his most important collection of writings and artwork. But it was vaulted away in a Swiss bank in 1984 by family members who considered it to be highly personal in nature; many Jungians inquired about gaining access to his red-leather journal in order to better understand the famous Swiss psychiatrist, but were turned away. Hardly anybody has ever read it.

That’s about to change when it becomes available through bookstores on Oct 7. Carl Jung’s journal, now known as The Red Book, is a mere $195 retail (discounts are available through the large retail book outlets), but even with the discount the book still costs over $100.

Many inspired followers of Jung’s influential thinking probably won’t be bothered by the high cost for the chance of a lifetime to examine the inner life — to its farthest depths — of one of the most important modern explorers of the mind.

Based on Jung’s unbridled self-analysis during a time of personal crisis some labeled as bordering on schizophrenic, the book’s calligraphy and illustrations depicted a journey into the deepest soul searching for the meanings behind his relentless visions and voices that started to plague Jung at the age of 38. It was a conscious and determined attempt to bring light to the darkness kept locked within.

Those who embrace Jung’s work hope the publication will revitalize Jungian psychology and create renewed interest in his concepts.  Jung pioneered ideas around discovering the inner self through the analysis of dreams and application of psychological archetypes, developed concepts involving synchronicity and the collective unconscious, and he dabbled in the occult, including astrology, séances, and the tarot, seeking the psychological connections and spiritual implications beyond religion.

Amazon.com: The Red Book by C.G. Jung

Nature Day to Day: A Humanizing Influence

One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.

- William Wordsworth

Paul Maurice Martin, OriginalFaith.com: Regular contact with nature helps humanize us. We can know a sense of unity with all life by way of the sights and sounds of the natural world. This important spiritual element is often left out of discussions of why protecting the environment is a critical issue for our time.

If your hometown and home state are anything like mine, you know how much things have been changing. National parks are wonderful and important places of inspiration and heritage, but we don’t live there. We are crowding nature out of our daily lives. Yet I believe that it is precisely here, at the borderlands and interchanges of our ordinary human activities with the natural landscape, that nature affects us most profoundly.

Continue reading »

The Benefits of Flaxseed & How to Add it to Your Diet

Flaxseed is one of those superfoods you’ve only heard about in the past decade. Flax, aka linseed, is not only a food staple but it’s used to manufacture everyday products such as paper, hair care products, and fabric.

Now research shows that in addition to all the other health benefits it affords, consumption of flaxseed reduces cholesterol.

Recent findings by Dr. Xu Lin at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai show that when participants underwent studies using flaxseed they experienced a reduction in their LDL — the “bad” cholesterol. The findings were compiled from 28 different past studies involving more than 1,500 participants. Post-menopausal women seemed to experience greater levels of reduction than men. The participants averaged one tablespoon of flaxseed per day.

Continue reading »