The Red Book
Carl Jung’s Red Book Illumination #115
”One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” Here, the
demands another Sacrifice.”
I: ”What sacrifice is that?”
S: ”The sacrifice that magic demands is solace.”
I: ”Solace? Do I understand correctly? Understanding you is unspeakably difficult. Tell me, what does this mean?”
S: ”Solace is to be sacrificed.”
I: ”What do you mean? Should the solace that I give or the solace that I receive be sacrificed?”
S: ”Both.”
I: ”I’m confused. This is too dark.”
S: ”You must sacrifice solace for the sake of the black rod, the solace you give and the solace you receive.”
I: Are you saying that I shouldn’t be allowed to receive the solace of those I love? And should give no solace to those I love?
This means the loss of a piece of humanity; and what one calls severity toward oneself and others takes its place.”
S: ”That is how it is.”
I: ”Does the rod demand this sacrifice?”
S: ”It demands this sacrifice.”
I: ”Can I, am I allowed to make this sacrifice for the sake of the rod? Must I accept the rod?”
S: ”Do you want to or not?”
I: ”I can’t say What do I know about the black rod? Who gives it to me?”
S: ”The darkness that lies before you. It is the next thing that comes to you. Will you accept it and offer it your sacrifice?”
I: It is hard to sacrifice to the dark, to the blind darkness-and what a sacrifice!”
S: ”Nature-does nature offer solace? Does it accept solace?”
I: ”You venture a heavy word. What solitude are you asking of me?”
S: ”This is your misfortune, and-the power of the black rod.”
I: ”How gloomily and full of foreboding you speak! Are you sheathing me in the armor of icy severity? Are you clasping my heart with a bronze carapace? I’m happy with the warmth of life. Should I miss it? For the sake of magic?
What is magic?” Carl Jung; Red Book [Dr. Jung conversing with his Soul.]
Inscription on top: “Armor triumphat.” Inscription at bottom: ”This image was completed on 9 January I92I, after it had waited incomplete for 9 months.
It expresses I know not what kind of grief, a fourfold sacrifice. I could almost choose not to finish it.
It is the inexorable wheel of the four functions, the essence of all living beings imbued with sacrifice.”
The functions are those of thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuition, which Jung wrote about in psychological Types (192I). On February 23, I920, Jung noted in Black Book 7:
”What occurs between the lover and the beloved is the enre fullness of the Godhead. Both are unfathomable riddles to each other. For who understands the Godhead? / But the God is born in solitude, from the secret / mystery of the individual. / The separation between life and love is the contradiction between solitude and togetherness”.
