Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self (Collected Works of C.G. Jung Vol.9 Part 2)

"This book is a psychological classic - mostly because of the parallel drawn between the symbolical Christ-figure and one's honest self. In psychology the archetypal self usually represents the psychic totality, wholeness.

Just consider Christ as a symbol of this self! And then the whole Biblical-apocryphal story suddenly gets a new perspective to it. One is then tempted to attach much greater interest in the living presence of the archetypal self than to the idea of the historical Jesus. It is said that man's greatest treasure is to be found within man, and not outside him.

I think in their conscious mind people tend to have a fear of the uncharted unconscious. For in a modern society values mainly come from outside. The most intimate feeling-values are commonly repressed. For example sex is something one is supposed to practice without any real feelings! Even finding a non-defiled spouse in today's world is practically an impossibility... A small (but popular) "elite" with their behaviour sets the standards of sexuality and the rest of the bunch just try to emulate them as best as they can. It seems to be far more important for one just to be accepted, than to look for anything honest - like love. But I think in the long run self-deception is the root of most societal problems. -Actually, it's anti-Christian!"
~ Written on 2008-09-30

""Jung in a nutshell" does not do justice to this topic. It is a bowl of nuts.

But my very rudimentary understanding (to put forth one nut of many) is that consciousness, or the differentiation of self is a progression, which arises from a world of the unconscious. Anybody might say such a thing and get lucky, without having read Aion at all. But to read Aion and then say it is putting your money where your mouth is.

The template of self begins at the Anthropos (relying on the second-to-last chapter on the quaternario schema), and crystalizes in the lapis, where consciousness becomes fully realized.

Jung was not prosyletizing Christianity, but used Christ as an allegory of development of self. This is why he resorts to alchemy and Gnosticism, more than patristic forms of Christianity. He saw the philosophical underpinnings of Christianity as a workable model to explain how the higher human, who operates on his environment as well as on his own thinking, rises above his primal, animalist soma.

We began as a perfect template in the realm of the unconscious, we descended into the world of formation (borrowing from the Sephir Yetzirah here), or "Physis," as Jung called it, only to rise again through the quaternario ladder to become Anthropos once again.

By the way, the reader might note that in later chapters Jung seems to drop any mention about "Aion", a term better explained in the middle parts of the book (Ch. 5-11). I think Jung wanted us to apply his quaternario model on a meta-scale, not just as an explanation of the perfection of self and the emergence of consciousness.

As we know, we are nearing the end of the present Piscean Aion (the Jesus era), which was preceded by the war-like Arien Aion (the Greco/Roman conquest era), but which is to be followed by a more intellectual Aquarian Aion (whatever that will be).

The progression of the Aions, I think Jung hoped we would discern, correspond directly to his quaternario schema, and that human consciousness is tied to the meta-physical laws of the universe (in this case, astronomy) just like the ocean's tides correspond to the lunar phases."
~ Written on 2008-05-23

"This is a must own book for any student of Carl Jung. It covers the basic concepts of his psychological topology in his own words in a brief space and goes into a much deeper dive on the Self. This exploration of Self goes deeply into Christian symbolism and the structure and dynamics of the Self.

Like much of Carl Jung's writing, some of this is very tough going for people new to Jung. It is not a bedside book and the average reader will need to look a lot of things up. However, it is indispensable in terms of the concepts.

There are many good books that can provide commentary on this book and you can find them easily. I would highly recommend that you pick up one of these books about Aion in addition to the text itself. This is a book that has many layers and one which you must be patient with.

If you are merely looking for an introduction to Jung, then I would go with Jung's Map of the Soul by Murray Stein. This is the BEST introduction I know of and quotes Aion a lot. Aspects of the Faminine is also very good for those who want to know more about the anima/animus and a more readable version of Jung's thoughts on marriage, the feminine, etc.

The Viking Portable Jung is also good to get a cross section of Jung's most important thought. However, you will eventually want to read Aion for its depth and extensive elaboration on the nature of the Self.

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~ Written on 2006-09-12

"As usual, this is another discerning, but difficult to read Jung book. It focuses on Christian imagery as related to Jung's model of consciousness. This model includes 3 layers vs. Freud's 2-layered approach--by adding a meta-layer which Jung termed the Collective Unconscious. Part 1 of volume 9 of the collected works addressed this layer & its denizens, the archetypes. It is very useful to read that volume prior to this one. This one provides additional information on good vs. evil. The socialization process of each civilization or nation attempts to reify acceptable behavior into children. The down side of this is that parts of the child's psyche is split off--or repressed. The conglomeration of these split off parts form the individual's shadow complex. The initial step in individuation is to reclaim & integrate these parts back into consciousness. Such repressed parts, if not brought back to consciousness, slowly gain energy & can affect people negatively--"not being myself" or Freudian slips. Jung found that alchemy depicted much of his psychological discoveries--giving him a relieving confirmation of his views. In another work, he also mentions that the great Hasidic leader, the Great Maggid of Mezerich, described the bulk of Jungian psychology centuries before. Jung looks for image parallels throughout history & all over the planet (similar to Joseph Campbell's quest). The 2nd phase of individuation is recalling anima or animus projections from other people--a topic far too complex for this review--see Schwartz-Salant & Stein's "Gender & Soul in Psychotherapy."

However, Jung had issues with his Christian upbringing (see his autobiography "Memories, Dreams, Reflections), but he finds extensive parallels within Christianity, especially Catholicism herein. His analysis will probably have an upside & a downside for both Christians & non-Christians alike--though perhaps differently. One can find similar parallels in other religions as well. For a good overall exposition of Jungian principles by a Christian theologian, see Hans Schaer's "Religion & the Cure of Souls in Jung's Psychology" & read CW11, Jung's "Psychology of Religion..." I liked these better than "Aion" (& I'm more interested in Buddhism). Jung's split with long-time friend Father Victor White was over Jung's view of evil as an entity vs. White's Catholic view of the "privatio boni"--evil as the absence of good (per Jung's "Letters"). I suggest reading M. Scott Peck's "People of the Lie" for more on this issue.

As in all but one of his books (i.e. "Answer to Job"), Jung takes a Thinking, scientific stance, saying (~Vajrayana Buddhism), "Emotion incidentally is not an activity of the individual, but something that happens to him." This is not my favorite Jung book, but it's worth reading."
~ Written on 2006-06-05

"I found a lot of this book formidably dense. Recently I read an introductory book on Jung by psychoanalyst Anthony Storr that sheds some light, even though Storr never specifically mentions AION. Storr observes a tendency in Jung's thinking to describe the psyche as a self-regulating mechanism, like the human endocrine system. For example, extraverted activity in the unconscious compensates for introverted activity in the conscious (or vice versa). Also, a neurosis may be the unconscious's way of compensating for overly one-sided thinking in the conscious. Similarly, a schizophrenic delusion may be the psyche's (unsuccessful) attempt to restore a lost mental balance.

Examples of this balance/compensation principle in AION:
(1) The Christ symbol. It's a symbol of the Self (like most of the symbols and archetypes discussed in the book), but it lacks a Shadow or inferior component; consequently, the early Christians were compelled to generate the Anti-Christ symbol. However, since the Christ and Anti-Christ are separate entities in traditional Christian thinking, the Western worldview has become highly dualistic and Manichaean, good vs. evil.
(2) The God archetype. As Western thinking has become increasingly secular over the centuries, the God-image has become repressed into the unconscious, where it emerges in savage political forms such as fascism, a worship of the State. (Jung wrote this a few years after World War II.)
(3) Leviathan and Behemoth. "God's monstrous antagonist produces a double because the God-image is incomplete..." (pg. 120).
(4) Sons of God in Catharist legend: Satanael the elder son, Christ the younger son. Similar to the Christ/Anti-Christ dichotomy.
(5) The "higher" and "lower" Adam figures in some Gnostic legends. The higher Adam represents higher states of consciousness; the lower Adam, the unconscious.
(6) The two thieves crucified with Christ. One is destined for heaven (higher consciousness), the other for a warmer climate (unconscious).

Of course, there's more to the book than this equilibrium-of-the-Self aspect. But that aspect ties in with the main theme, the process of individuation (or ascending to a higher state of consciousness) in the Western mind.

Jung really assaults the reader here with his encyclopedic knowledge of religion and alchemy. A lot of his later work deals with esoteric subjects (alchemy, gnosticism, hermeticism, kabbalah). I found a few of the religious subjects, like the medieval "Holy Ghost" movement, to be pretty interesting in themselves, but unfortunately Jung discusses only those elements that relate to his psychological theories."
~ Written on 2004-03-07