"The crucifixion fantasy"
In 1913 Jung had a vision of a crucifixion, which is here partly described. It is not included in his autobiography.
"Then a most disagreeable thing happened. Salome became very interested in me, and she assumed that I could cure her blindness. She began to worship me. I said, 'Why do you worship me?' She replied, 'You are Christ.' In spite of my objections she maintained this. I said, 'This is madness,' and became filled with sceptical resistance. Then I saw the snake approach me. She came close and began to encircle me and press me in her coils. The coils reached up to my heart. I realized as I struggled, that I had assumed the attitude of the Crucifixion. In the agony and the struggle, I sweated so profusely that the water flowed down on all sides of me. Then Salome rose, and she could see. While the snake was pressing me, I felt that my face had taken on the face of an animal of prey, a lion or a tiger" (McGuire (ed), 1989, Analytical Psych., p.104).I contend that this is a vision of the Jungian unitarian self. As it takes place in a Christian context, the snake would signify the spirit of falseness, associated with the dark deity. The spirit of falsehood encoils Jung and causes him to turn into a subhuman and daemonic deity. The image relates the idea that Jung's self is encoiled by falseness. Thus, it signifies a false self ideal. It nourishes the subhuman qualities, i.e. it promotes unconsciousness. The Jungian self comprises many warring opposites that threaten to tear Jung apart. But the snake encoils him and holds him together. This comes at a price, and his face acquires daemonic features. Thus, it is a false solution to the problem of the self. Jung was destined to labour by the sweat of his brow to establish his composite and paradoxical idea of self. This is the sweat that flowed like spiritual water and which Jung's followers take part of today. As a symbol it is comparable to the blood of Christ. See my discussion of the shadow sides of the Jungian unitarian self in my articles The Complementarian Self (
here) and Critique of Synchronicity (
here).
Mats Winther
