Jung’s active imagination of Black Books began as a search for the soul. Most of the material was written during the WWI and bears the imprint of its horrific context. Jung entered mundus imaginalis and traversed landscapes of his inner world. Initially he travelled alone, and later in the company of his soul and a gnostic magus Philemon. In his exploration Jung’s I encountered various figures, interactions with whom affected him deeply. In this presentation we will focus on his encounters with the Dead. After the death of a poor, migrant Swiss worker, Jung’s I encountered Death itself. He was visited by the procession of dead anabaptists on the pilgrimage to and from Jerusalem. Their visitation crossed over from the world of the dead to the world of the living causing disturbances in Jung’s household. To appease them he delivered Seven Sermons to the Dead. In other imaginal adventure, he was confronted by the three dead—souls from Ancient Egyptian and Greek underworld—who demanded that he builds the temple for the community of the living and the dead, as both life and death are aspects of the soul.
In his extensive scientific work and psychiatric analytic practice Jung dealt with human suffering and probed the mysteries of the psyche, that inevitably led to reflections of death and beyond that he framed in symbolic language. In the recent publication of Jung’s Life and Work, the protocols of the complete interviews with Aniela Jaffé, whose edited version forms the well-known Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Jung recounts personal experiences with the dead, reincarnation, afterlife, and does so concretely without symbolic interpretation.
In our uncertain times, engaging Jung’s reflections on this dark subject can offer some orientation in our own wrestling with the angel death.