The Red Book Reading Group: A Closer Look at “The Magician” and “The Scrutinies”

This will be the third series of seminars on Jung’s The Red Book and will focus on the closing chapter of the Liber Secundus, “The Magician” and the final book in the Liber Novus, “The Scrutinies.” George Bright, Boris Matthews, and Daniel Ross will return for the 2026-2027 completion of our series which has been offered through the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago. The structure remains the same; each session will involve reading the Liber Novus followed by discussion.

The purpose of these seminars is to try to understand what Jung is bringing forth in this work which has been described as a poetic expression of Jung’s visionary experiences though at the same time taking note of the fact that Jung refused to consider this book a work of art. It is neither art nor science nor philosophy. Sonu Shamdasani at the very beginning of The Red Book, Liber Novus reminds us of what Jung said to Aniela Jaffé in 1957, and included in Memories, Dreams, Reflections.

“The years of which I have spoken to you, when I pursued my inner images, were the most important time of my life. Everything else is to be derived from this… My entire life consisted of elaborating what had burst forth from the unconscious and flooded me like an enigmatic stream and threatened to break me. That was the stuff and material for more than only one life. Everything later was only the outer classification, the scientific elaboration, and the integration into life. But the numinous beginning, which contained everything, was then.”

Some participants describe the experience of this seminar as “psychoactive.” You do not need to have participated in previous series to join this one.