Carl Jung: the Astrologer’s wise old man at the Bollingen Tower
Dear Kendra~
Here’s a photo of Carl Jung’s “Bollingen Tower” that I saw
the last time I was in Zurich—such a magical place! I love that he built this
stone and timber tower as his sacred retreat. There’s a wall here where he
painted a vibrant mural of the outstretched wings of his spiritual mentor,
‘Philemon’. You can see this colorful painting in his journal: “The Red Book” –and
he painted it without benefit of electric lights—! The mural within the round
tower is the heart of this space, and it has a rustic, primitive and private
feeling. He would take himself here to
ponder, write, and cook meals over an open fire—apparently he was quite a good
cook who loved cooking in a large pot—and if you were honored to be a guest at
supper, he would suggest “quietness” while eating so that the food could be
truly savored.
I can imagine him here, with his pipe, his paints and
his….aloneness. He “attended to his inner life” and in this way he was an
archetypal “senex”—the wise Saturnian elder man. Jung had a Leo Sun sign, with
a Taurus Moon conjunct Pluto, and Aquarius rising.
He was also a bit of a trickster (like Hermes), and a shaman
and scholar as well as a spiritual man and healer. His psychology came out of
his life; he broke some rules, he kept to some. As John Perry, a friend of his
noted: “There was always a little something magical about the way Jung’s mind
worked. He said that he felt himself to be more shaman than psychiatrist.”
Sometimes I fear that most modern psychology, and even
astrology, serves the ego’s fantasy of control, while Jungian psychology
affirms “the summons to surrender to the gods”—to that which wishes to live
through us…and calls us to listen to the inner archetypal voices which
astrologers call planets.
Jung would counsel
that we become a “disciple” to that which is calling us, and surrender to our
personal discipline. A positive view of “discipline” don’t you think? Being a disciple to that which you really
love? Still it’s never easy for us, nor was it for him.
His dearest friend, Toni Wolf, highly disapproved of his
exploration of alchemy and astrology, but he pursued it anyway and that issue
finally ended their relationship of many years. Did you know that she was his
lover, companion, and ‘guide’ when he was going through his most difficult
years during his Uranus opposition, around the age of forty? And that Jung’s
wife, Emma, actually accepted Toni as a member of the family…so Toni would be
present at Sunday meals…much more accepted in European culture at that time
than it would be now! Anyway….
Did you know that Jung studied and practiced astrology for
forty years before he published his work on synchronicity in 1950? He used the
word “synchronicity” to explain how astrology worked, meaning that there can be
a relationship between two things that don’t have a causal relationship—that
is, that one event doesn’t scientifically cause the other to happen—i.e. pure
cause and effect. But what is significant and necessary is that there must be
an emotional meaningfulness to that moment in time. And of course, what could
be more meaningful than our birth! Jung once said: “We are born at a moment in time, and like
the grapes in a vineyard, we take on the qualities of the time and place from
which we came.”
Jung used the birth charts of his clients to “find clues to
the core of psychological truth…” (this was written in a letter he wrote to
Freud in 1911). The fact that he respected and used astrology
means a lot to those of us who combine psychology and astrology—which is what
archetypal astrologers do.
But even if Jung didn’t have this connection, I would still
be in awe of him as the archetype of the “Wise Old Man.” He honored the Mystery
that we live within—that sea the Soul swims within—without getting dogmatic
about it. Isn’t that the heart of wisdom; to honor the Mystery without
literalizing it and without trying to make it fit precisely into concrete
scientific or historical fact? Joseph Campbell later called this kind of truth
a “myth” and he understood myths as revealing a very deep level of truth.
Today I feel more like a mentor in writing all this. But
still the story continues here…and I
haven’t heard a word yet from Peter, even though Sophie and I will be in
Zurich by noon today. I’m thinking of staying in a B & B in old Zurich if
we can find a room. Perhaps I’ve honored my Saturn conjunct the Libra Sun today
by writing about Jung as the astrologer’s “senex” while listening to Bach, on
my Ipod. It has been pouring rain all day, and Sophie has been reading and
sleeping this whole train trip—but she did tell me one thing—she has a surprise
for me tonight when we get settled in our rooms….?
Love,
Isabelle
