It is my pleasure to introduce you to Emma Marie Rauschenbach Jung. Her accomplishments were vast, and her contributions to the field of Analytical Psychology stand on their own. Using her life-long research and interest in Chretien de Troyes’ Perceval, or the Story of the Grail, she created a new understanding of the archetypal ground and psychological significance to the Grail Legend perennially and for our age. In addition, she pioneered a model for work with animus and anima and, in Animus and Anima: Two Essays, she developed a scaffolding upon which others could build.
Mrs. Jung was an author, scholar, teacher, researcher, Jungian analyst, lecturer, linguist (Swiss, German, Swiss-German, English, French, Latin, Greek, Medieval French, and Provencal); a student of physics, philosophy, and mathematics; a pianist; a mother of five children, wife, sister, and daughter. In many ways, she was a woman ahead of her generation. Even so, at heart she was a deeply private individual.
During our time together, we shall focus primarily on the life of Emma Jung. We shall also include information about her relationship to her work, her family, and her husband, C.G. Jung. And we shall also do our best to suspend judgments based on collective thinking, not to apply labels to their lives, and to be open to what it took to become who, and what, they were.
Upon her death, Dr. Jung declared in no uncertain terms, “She was a Queen!” C.G. Jung considered her to be a full partner in the work of psychology. Without Emma Jung, there would be no Analytical Psychology.
Emma Jung’s story is an encounter with destiny. Some say that fate is the hand we are dealt and that destiny is how we play that hand. Tonight we shall focus on the hand that she was dealt and include the initial conditions into which she was born, her childhood, adolescence, and marriage with C.G. Jung, and what developed thereafter. As a framework, we shall consider Plato’s daimon, which James Hillman called the acorn theory, the individuation process, and the inner marriage.
As we look at the life of Emma Jung, I invite you to consider the initial conditions of the life into which you were born. What was the hand you were dealt? Going further, as your life unfolded, at what point did you become aware of your daimon and did your fate transform into your destiny.
