Carl Jung (1875-1961) - I. Introduction, Initiation, and the Collective Unconscious
by Sean Jobst 26 July 2020 Today is the birthday of a great thinker who has been one of my influences these past three years, primarily for giving me a framework to make sense of my inner journey. He provided concrete form and terms to the deepest aspects of the internal self, that which cannot always be named much less quantified. Carl Jung (1875-1961) is more than a psychologist, for he went beyond the rigid scientism of his peers into a way of thinking that was new only insofar as it challenged the dogmas that dominated his field. Despite the "youth" ( jung ) of his name, he tapped into the most ancient wisdom that remained latent all these centuries. Not only a Swiss psychologist, Jung was a European mystic and a Germanic shaman, aware that the Siberian term described spiritual realities that had parallels under other names across the world, including among Germanic peoples. He thus became a 20th century mystic and shaman, speaking within the language of his centu