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Carl Jung I Ching

I Ching and Jung

  • See also:
    - We just wrote an article showing how can one help the dream interpretation by using I Ching. The article is placed in our paper store. You may order it from here.
    - More information about I Ching (structure, philosopy, practice, etc.) may be found
    here.
    - Read the foreward to the I Ching by Carl Jung
    here.

pa kua
Pa-kua, the eight trigrams which form the basis of I Ching.
In his introduction of the English version of I Ching , Jung admits having practiced the oracle 30 years before meeting Richard Wilhelm, probably the most important translator to a western language of the Book. Jung claims to have used the book for the exploration of the unconscious.

Later on, his disciples used at length the oracle in psychotherapy. To give only one example: when a patient consulted the book with respect to his intent of having a relationship with a woman to whom he had ambivalent feelings, the oracle responded with Hexagram no. 44 - Coming to Meet - which states exactly: One should not marry such a maiden. What surprises one is, of course, the fact that the oracle answered with a hexagram that grasps the patient's present situation.

How it is possible that a book older then 5.000 years to be used in psychic treatment is argued by Jung who states that oracle's mechanism is based on synchronicity.

I Ching by LeggeI Ching or the Book of Changes, James Legge version, is the most accurate English translation ever made. You may use it both as book of wisdom and oracle of chages.

Click here to order from Amazon.com

Indeed, Jung finds in I Ching a confirmation and an application field for his synchronicity theory. This theory was partially inspired by one of his experiences with a patient that dreamed a golden scarab and, the next day, in Jung's cabinet, indeed appeared the in-question living creature. Continuing further on with the symbolist interpretation of this scarab, Jung concludes that he was considering his patient's future evolution that was about to suffer a real mutation from a rationalist as far as absurd position to a more convenient one. The scarab was a symbol and an indication, in the spirit of old ancient myths, of a death and psychic rebirth.

Jung himself offers a sample of how to use the oracle in the above mentioned introduction. You may download his introduction study from here.

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© Carl Jung Resources, 2008