Visionary Art and Collective Symbols

Creativity involves bringing one’s inner nature into being, a task unique for each individual. It must arise from your innermost self, not from fulfilling the expectations of others.

One of the most destructive things, psychologically, is unused creative power. If someone has a creative gift and, for some reason (fear, laziness, or conformity), does not use it, the psychic energy turns inwards and becomes poisonous. That is why we often see neuroses or psychoses as expressions of not-lived possibilities.

Creation always comes at a cost, a sacrifice that brings about suffering. Growth requires enduring inner conflict and moral burden. Without confrontation, there is no transformation, and hence no individuation. Creativity takes great courage, because an active battle with the gods is occurring.

Genuine creativity is characterised by a heightened consciousness. The artist experiences joy, in contrast to fleeting happiness. Joy is the emotion that goes with heightened consciousness, the mood that accompanies the experience of actualising one’s own potentialities.

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📚 Recommended Reading

▶ Prometheus Bound - Aeschylus

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▶ Songs of Experience and Innocence - William Blake

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▶ C.W. Vol. 15: The Spirit in Man, Art and Literature - Carl Jung

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▶ Modern Man in Search of a Soul - Carl Jung

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▶ Faust - Goethe

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▶ Memories, Dreams, Reflections - Carl Jung

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⌛ Timestamps

0:00 Introduction

2:21 Differentiation and Individuation

5:00 The Divine Gift of Creative Fire

10:36 The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

13:12 Los and the Bard

15:08 The Poetic Genius

17:18 The Spirit of the Age

21:50 Two Modes of Artistic Creation

26:26 Obstacles in Creative Work

37:21 The Unlived Life

39:14 Understanding Oneself

45:15 Balancing Inner world and Outer World

48:50 Suffering, God, and Meaning