The Red Book – The Intoxication with Myth, and the Red Tailed Hawk

Each day this week I will discuss topics from C. G. Jung’s The Red Book, along with my perspective and then continue the nature series with individual birds of prey that I have observed here on Turk’s Mountain.

The Red Book – The Intoxication with Myth
Jung had a deep fascination with mythology, its interpretation and meaning. He was influenced by Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Dante’s Commedia. This was during a time when the world was interested in both comparative religion and the psychological basis of symbolism. Jung was focused on answering “what is the myth you are living?”

Jung began interpreting his and other’s dreams. There are a number of dreams presented concerning his relationship with other people including Freud and prophecies about the apocalypse, which were a common discussion topic during this time period. He began trying “to get to know my myth” only to find “I was not living with a myth”. He was interested in the myth of the hero which was to “free himself from the mother” and then the incest myth as the “attempt to return to the mother to be reborn”.

While his intentions were/are unclear, this now completed work is derived from several of Jung’s finished and unfinished works. There is evidence that at some point Jung did intend to publish the work. However, due to its intensely personal nature, it is also possible that he did not intend for it to be published. This only adds to its mystique.

My Perspective
This work is a deeply personal journey to find true nature. It is written in another time and perspective of the world and society. It is so deeply personal, I am not sure it is for anybody other than the dedicated student of Jung or spirituality. I feel almost a voyeur in reading it.

Although it is early in my review, this book may reveal several lessons to us – 1.) Perhaps society has advanced, to no longer create this level of pain and suffering, 2.) Perhaps religion has evolved from shame and guilt to become more of a path to the spiritual life, or 3.) Perhaps Jung’s choice of profession indicates a felt need to understand his own unique problems. I will read on and report more tomorrow.

Tomorrow – Review of Liber Primus

Today’s Nature topic
And, now on to today’s nature topic - the birds of prey, a reminder to us that life lives off of life. Each of these creatures have informed me and made my life fuller. I salute each of them and show my deep respect with this small recognition.

Monday – American Kestrel (Sparrow Hawk)
Today - Red-Tailed Hawk
Wednesday - Osprey (Fish Hawk)
Thursday - Eastern Screech Owl
Friday - Great Blue Heron Crane and Belted Kingfisher

Red-Tailed Hawk

The Red-tailed Hawk is a familiar resident around my area. They are a very large bird – I have seen one that is more than 2 feet long. I called Roxy (one of my Jack Russell’s) in the other day when there was one dropping in a slow circle not more than 50 feet away. My brother’s neighbor lost a Chihuahua to a hawk a few years ago.

There are several active pairs I have witnessed raising and training their young. My impression was that after the courtship and nest building there was only one parent raising the young. Farmers with free-range chickens must be vigilant as the Red-tailed Hawk has been known to carry off a full grown chicken. I have a fenced ceiling in my chicken run, and in spite of their relative safety, hear the chickens scream when ever the hawks visit nearby.

Its flight is performed at a great height, sailing across a wide berth. A few days ago I saw three hawks chasing each other, rising very high into the sky then diving at each other. It is more common to see a mockingbird or crow chasing a hawk away as they seem to be able to turn and dodge faster than the larger bird. Their flight can be accompanied by a prolonged mournful cry, which sounds like kkkkaaaaeeeerrrr.

According to Dancing Otters and Clever Coyotes by Gary Buffalo Horn Man and Sherry Firedancer, the Red-tailed Hawk has a special connection with the Sun. If we see a Red-tailed Hawk circling over us it symbolizes the need to “embrace the power of our inner fire”. This is from their intriguing and colorful book that has been reviewed with my own.

The Red Book and The American Kestrel

Each day this week I will discuss topics from C. G. Jung’s The Red Book, along with my perspective and then continue the nature series with individual birds of prey that I have observed here on Turk’s Mountain.

The Red Book
The Red Book was written during a period of Jung’s “self-experiment” from 1913 to 1930 (from age 38 to 55). This was his “metanoia”; his new focus on mythology, folklore and religion, during a period where there was a cultural shift and broad interest in comparative religion. It is written in a formal, highly stylized, religious script and contains many paintings by Jung depicting his dreams and visions. There are many religious references and biblical quotations. While the meaning of the words is timeless, the style and tone is of an earlier time.

In the first part of the book is a color copy of the original in German. The second part contains commentary on Jung’s life and the English translation. Jung puts forward his personal spiritual journey to reclaim his soul by looking deeply within himself and developing a new view on both theology and psychology. In his words, he had been “living in an insane asylum of my own making”.

In viewing his paintings, we see at first, someone who is terribly troubled, maybe even tortured by his past. I would suggest he is bravely facing and interpreting his own personal demons in order to find inner truth and peace.


Here is an example from the book.

Jung had been walking down a street to see the sun shine off the new roof of a cathedral. At that moment he had a “terrible sinful thought” which he tried to ignore. He agonized for several days, until finally convincing himself that it was God himself who wanted him to think this thought much like the biblical example of Adam and Eve and the apple.

At that moment, he saw God “unleash an almighty turd” on the cathedral’s roof crushing the new roof and cathedral. Jung interpreted this as a “direct experience from the living God – standing omnipotent and free above the Bible and Church.”

My Perspective
Some of my friends have suggested I should peel back the curtain on my own experience. So here goes.

Everyday moment, I live in a peace that passes all understanding. It is a world without words. It is a world of beauty and joy, acceptance and surrender. It is not a passive world, but is without judgment or very much thinking at all. In order to write these words, I must step back into the skin of who I used to be.

I am only in the beginning of my review of the Red Book, so I don’t yet have a complete perspective. But this is what I see so far. I see an extraordinary man who had the courage to face his demons, because somewhere down deep, he knew that this was not who he really was. He knew that he was a victim of the socialization and indoctrination of his time.

Tomorrow – Jung’s “Intoxication with Myth”

Today’s Nature topic
And, now on to today’s nature topic - the birds of prey. These majestic birds are a constant reminder that life lives off of life. Each of them have informed me and made my life fuller. I salute each of them and show my deep respect with this small recognition.

Today – American Kestrel (Sparrow Hawk)
Tuesday - Red-Tailed Hawk
Wednesday - Osprey (Fish Hawk)
Thursday - Eastern Screech Owl
Friday - Great Blue Heron and Belted Kingfisher

American Kestrel (Sparrow Hawk)
I first heard about the Kestrel when I started building bird houses a few years ago. The plans for my screech owl box also accommodate the American Kestrel. I saw my first one several months later. It is a very colorful bird in a very compact package, 9-12”. As soon as I saw him, I knew what he was; it was only later that I looked him up in my Audubon book and confirmed the sighting. I now see them several times a summer. On my place they stay to the lower, wooded creek areas.

A hunter of small birds and mammals, these diminutive hawks fly low along the ground, unlike their soaring, larger cousin, the red-tailed hawk. The kestrel stands proudly erect on a point of observation waiting patiently for the scene to unfold. It will then fly low; darting left and right until it secures its prey in its talons, returning to its stand to devour its prey. It’s hard to believe that it took me 50 years to see my first one, while they have been near me all along.

Carl Jung and his Secret Book (The Red Book)

Recently, friends of mine from Texas sent an article from the New York Times on an as yet unpublished book by Carl Jung and his personal quest for spirituality.

Many know Carl Jung is one of the fathers of modern psychology, taking Sigmund Freud’s ideas beyond sex and early development into spiritual enlightenment. Dr. Jung was a student of the early Gnostics and proponent of spirituality outside of organized religion.

But what less than a handful of people knew, was that Jung had written and illustrated a significant work of his own spiritual search. Secreted in a European bank vault for over 20 years, few have actually seen the book; the NYTimes article quotes the few who have.

I have great expectations of this rediscovered work and will report back as soon as I have had a chance to read it. The book is expected to be out in early winter from W. W. Norton. Here are some of the details:

“The Red Book” by Carl G. Jung

Hardcover - 416 pages - $195 (on sale at Amazon for $105.30 - 12/4/2009)

ISBN - 9780393065671

Link to the NYTimes article http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/magazine/20jung-t.html?_r=1&src=twt&twt=nytimesscience

The web site for norton the publisher of the Red Book is www.wwnorton.com

Religion as Path

I heard recently that over 70% of people surveyed characterized themselves as spiritual, and 40% as religious. This should not be surprising. If you look closely at our diverse religions, they were founded in a tradition of spirituality, based primarily on human spiritual experiences. In my mind, each religion has developed a unique path to a spiritual life. While each of the religious paths may be distinctive, while the spiritual destination may have slight differences, I see more likenesses than not.

The spiritual seeker will choose a path. There are many. The great religious traditions each offer such a path.

When the destination is achieved, when spirituality is realized, the path will have served its noble purpose.

A spiritual life is the objective; religion can serve as the path to that destination.