Carl Jung: An Unexpected Mystic
Friday, February 28, 2025
I find that all my thoughts circle round God like the planets round the sun, and are as irresistibly attracted by [God]. I would feel it the most heinous sin were I to offer any resistance to this compelling force. —Carl Jung, letter, March 1955
Father Richard considers Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung a mystic who had a deep connection to the divine:
One of the major figures in my spiritual lineage is the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961). Although he was not a church-going Christian and said many things highly critical of organized Christianity as he saw it in his time, he laid a very solid foundation for the rediscovery of the spiritual world in an extremely materialistic and increasingly secular Europe. Jung utterly knew and believed that the inner life was the source of the outer; late in his life, he firmly and proudly replied when asked “Do you now believe in God?” with “I know. I don’t need to believe. I know.” [1]
Jung made statements that would surprise many Christians, conservative and liberal alike. For example, he saw Jesus’ life and many of the doctrines of the Church as a complete and perfect map and guide for human transformation. He believed in the central importance of rituals, myths, and symbols, which Catholics and Orthodox Christians could appreciate. Although Jung gave Bible passages more meaning and more credibility, he was perceived as an unbeliever by most Protestants. His development of concepts such as shadow, paradox, archetypes, symbols, and the psychological character of human transformation into the Divine made him a true prophet of the soul and a teacher of deep, inner sacramentalism. [2]
Jung believed that if God wants to speak to us, God has to use words that will, first of all, feel like our own thoughts. How else could God come to us? That’s why we have to be taught how to recognize, honor, and allow that sometimes our thoughts are God’s thoughts. That internal trust and authority is necessary to balance out the almost exclusive reliance upon external authority promoted by mainline Christianity. While Scripture, priests, pastors, and the pope may be necessary, Jung recognized that they are all external to the self, and offer us a religion from the outside in. Jung wanted to teach us to honor those same symbols, but from the inside out, to recognize that there are already numinous voices in our deepest depths. If we do not have deep contact with our in-depth self, he believed we could not know God.
Jung wrote, “The whole world is God’s suffering.” [3] That is the knowing of a mystic, and it’s one of my favorite lines of his. A mystic sees thing in wholes, not just in parts. They can connect all the anecdotes and intuit the big patterns. Christian mystics recognize that every incidence of suffering is a participation in what we Christians would call the eternal crucifixion of the Christ. When we see in wholes, we can always find a place for each of the parts. [4]
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Jesus Calling: February 28
Stop judging and evaluating yourself, for this is not your role. Above all, stop comparing yourself with other people. This produces feelings of pride or inferiority; sometimes, a mixture of both. I lead each of My children along a path that is uniquely tailor-made for him or her. Comparing is not only wrong; it is also meaningless.
Don’t look for affirmation in the wrong places: your own evaluations, or those of other people. The only source of real affirmation is My unconditional Love. Many believers perceive Me as an unpleasable Judge, angrily searching out their faults and failures. Nothing could be farther from the truth! I died for your sins, so that I might clothe you in My garments of salvation. This is how I see you: radiant in My robe of righteousness. When I discipline you, it is never in anger or disgust; it is to prepare you for face-to-Face fellowship with me throughout all eternity. Immerse yourself in My loving Presence. Be receptive to My affirmation, which flows continually from the throne of grace.
Luke 6:37 NLT
Do Not Judge Others
37 “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven.
John 3:16-17 NLT
16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave[a] his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
Isaiah 61:10 NLT
10 I am overwhelmed with joy in the Lord my God!
For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation
and draped me in a robe of righteousness.
I am like a bridegroom dressed for his wedding
or a bride with her jewels.
Proverbs 3:11-12 NLT
11 My child, don’t reject the Lord’s discipline,
and don’t be upset when he corrects you.
12 For the Lord corrects those he loves,
just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights.
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