Review: The Gnostic Jung
The Gnostic Jung and the Seven Sermons to the Dead by Stephan A. Hoeller
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Stephen Hoeller’s Gnostic Jung is an invaluable resource, a veritable meditation text as another reviewer noted, for those ready and willing to take a dive into a mode of spiritual/psychological development that is not for those only looking only to feel “better.”
Early in Carl Jung’s career and shortly after his traumatic falling out with his mentor Sigmund Freud, he wrote a cryptic text, a short series of reflections he called “The Seven Sermons of the Dead.” Through it, maintains Hoeller, professor of comparative religions, Jung outlined the spiritual and psychological direction his life work in human development would follow.
Those familiar with Gnosticism, not a prerequisite as Hoeller explains it well enough in the book, as a Christian heresy of the second and third centuries, will require some viewpoint adjustment to see this belief system as the Gnostics themselves and Jung viewed it. “Earlier than any authority in the field of Gnostic studies,” Hoeller writes, “Jung recognized the Gnostics for what they were: seers who brought forth original, primal creations from the mystery which he called the unconscious.” This fascinating conjunction of an ancient religious system, Gnosticism, with a modern scientific one, Jungian psychology, is only one of the fascinating aspects of The Gnostic Jung.
It contains many stunning observations on modern social and spiritual conundrums that the Gnostic/ Jungian combination seems to resolve. I underlined dozens of lines in the text, so many beautifully written too, for future reflection. As an example, here is a paragraph, even though it might offend some, that I found worth savoring:
“To Jung, life has always two movements: one upward, the other downward. To the Pollyanna optimism of the spiritual adolescents, there is only one direction or motion, and this is up. Whether we look to the so-called “born again” Christianity with its once-popular slogan “one way,” or to the nineteenth-and early twentieth-century New Thought schools with their near-obsession with the concept of evolution and the power of positive thinking, this false optimism seems to be prominently represented. It is to be doubted whether genuine spiritual growth is possible under such circumstances. Suffering accepted, darkness recognized, and sorrow understood are great assets to the authentic life of the spirit. Composure, serenity, and authentic psychic strength all arise from the recognition and acceptance of the reality of evil and darkness and not from their denial due to false optimism. Heedless cheerfulness, on the other hand, almost inevitably changes eventually into sorrow and discontent, for it denies the reality of one important aspect of life.”
If the opposition between good and evil in the world yesterday, today, and likely tomorrow still makes you highly uncomfortable, treat yourself to this book.