I need to stop looking for a logical explanation for why things didn't work out with him. My brain wants a logical answer, but experiencing this intensity and attraction towards him, it was only my own mental state, and not a unique cosmic conspiracy.

The theory of projection, the unique traits I see in him are actually parts of me that have been sitting undeveloped. Because they are my anima/animus. I believed I needed to possess them to feel complete. He cracked open my heart, forcing me to step out of my comfort.

This relationship failed so I could focus on my own individuation. He was a catalyst, not a permanent partner. The qualities that drew me, are things I need to integrate into my own life. The pain of letting them go is the friction of breaking my old habits. My goal should be to take accountability for my own growth and develop those traits myself, rather than mourning what I lost in him. Stop mourning the relationship that cannot be. To look inward, identify what they triggered, and take responsibility for embodying that higher potential independently.

This is just me working on myself. Making me a happier person. Don't take it as letting go. Whether together or apart these are truths I have to face.

Or, to be more accurate, what Jung bought to the mainstream was sanitized versions of the occult. Let me give you an example:

A lot of this spooky shit is presented as demons and such things in order to A) keep the plebs away and B) offer hints about what kicks beneath the surface.

Archetypes came from astrology, Gnosticism and spirit communication.

Individuation and the Shadow were lifted directly from Western Alchemy and tribal initiation things.

Synchronicity was the I Ching and astrology with context stripped and huge drop in res.

His whole family lineage was steeped in this field and as any practicing magickian will tell you:

"Imagination is the most important thing, second to will".

How may of you have gone beyond your idol, I'm wondering? Even studying one of the OGs lays out his whole Game as you see where he lifted and riffed for the gifts he remixed and thats before we get into where they got their inspiration as whats new to the West and occult as hell was actually common knowledge in the lands filled with melanin but thats another topic.

Seeing as my posts aren't exactly setting this sub ablaze I don't think y'all are my kinds of peeps, really. And thats cool as fan because where you're at is interesting as heck but going beyond it is where the real magick happens, pun intended. Not downplaying ya man or anything as what he did and the time that kicked was a truly Herculean effort type thing but I'm genuinely starting to think the Jungalist was a vehicle of controlled dissemination of certain occulted datasets to the West to see how they handled them in their mainly linear consciousness. A catalyst, if you will.

The fact there was no progress hence is probably why they haven't unleashed the flutes yet. That said, the media aspect is fairly dripping in occultism since way back when so they just pivoted the method when the academics didn't want it into some place else.

Movies, especially, are filled with such things...

Hello everyone, last year I came out from a relationship with a diagnosed Psycopath, yes yes I was naive and young and thought I could fix her, after being coldly discarded last year because I literally felt like I was just an empty shell and she knew it, this past month I started looking at myself at why could feel others emotions so deeply like they were my own, after alot of introspecting and solitude I found out I had an innate sensitiveness (Empath) due to my childhood traumas and dysfunctional parents.

Anyways enough with the sob story, I came upon the work of Carl Jung which I found highly fascinating although very intellectual, what fascinated me even more was his work about individuation, I always had this inner urge to be free never knowing with it really meant, his work on individuation really resonated with me, it feels like this is it, this is what is meant to be truly free and one with oneself.

Just wanted to share that I am finally starting to find the way to find myself, I know it won't be easy and will be the work of my lifetime, but I am feeling really hopeful plus I had some really meaningful and symbolic dreams which made me very positive.

Cheers everyone, I hope we all find our way to wholeness and above all keep being whole.

Hi! Here’s some info before going into the description of my dream.
- I’m a female.
- I’m 21 years old.
- I’m from the south of Italy.
- My family is very catholic, especially my grandparents.
- I’m a spiritual person, and i have always been, since i was a child.
If you need anything else, let me know! Now, for the dream: it’s night, i’m standing in my balcony and i’m staring at the sky. There aren’t any stars, but the Moon isn’t the same, it’s red, very red, it almost seems like it’s spilling blood, and it very big. That’s not all, because even the surface isn’t normal, it’s seems like there are symbols on it, they seem related to ancient egyptian iconography, at least that’s what i think in the dream. I feel like i’m the only person in the world who is seeing this, it feels like it’s just for me. I feel scared, but not like when you watch a horror movie and you get scared from the jump scares; this fear is different, very deep, and i carried with me when i woke up.

I tried active imagination and falling in a tube or in a hole is a persistent pattern that goes through all my imaginated pictures... what does that mean?

Wanted to share what I've been experiencing recently

Have had a lot of neurotic problems, the source of which was half unconscious, but all my tendencies and compelxes were obviously pointing me in the direction of my wound.

In the past few weeks had recurring dreams that I was an amputee missing a leg, at least 3-4. Then I met an amputee in real life missing the same leg, weird coincidence. And then the realization of the "amputation" I suffered from came into consciousness and became full of despair. Everything started to fall into place, lots of hopelessness and denial. But thankfully I have read enough Jung and others to understand that this is the test I have to go through if I want to really live this life.

There is a lot of flying away from our problems, Jung is the cure for this, but his ideas are so extravagant sounding sometimes his work can become a fantasy escape. Its real work, believe me, its not what you want to feel at all. Angels don't come swooping in and make everything right. But I'm convinced with care and a sober mind Jung can help anyone come face to face with reality and foster an actual spiritual basis and not just, as he would say, "autoeroticism."

Good luck, for all of you who are earnestly trying to live this life.

I just started exploring Jung, so excuse my lack of knowledge here, but I have a valid question:

Of all the scenarios below, which one do you identify with and why?

1- You are familiar with the texts, theory, concepts etc. But haven’t really experienced/ practiced the actual processes of meeting the unconscious in anyway, or tapping into the magic.

2- you are familiar with the theory (even superficially), AND have had significant experiences with the psyche and have tapped into some magic.

3- you are familiar with the theory and have experienced some stuff but you wouldn’t call it magic really.

How I’d define magic here: something you’ve discovered about our human capabilities that most people wouldn’t believe are even possible. So not particularly breaking any physical laws but absolutely tapping into some inter dimensional phenomena.

Note: I personally have had some experience with psychic phenomena that I wouldn’t really tell most people because of how crazy (amazingly fascinating) they are.

Carl Jung wrote, “The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recesses of the soul.” (The Meaning of Psychology for Modern Man, 1933–1934). <Cite refs={\["turn420051search0","turn420051search12"\]}/>

I dreamed that a man's sister, with whom I had never interacted directly in waking life but whom I associated with indirect shade or disapproval in connection with him, approached me warmly.

The dream unfolded in 3 scenes, each with its own setting and interaction in a series of recurring dreams that happened over days and weeks (this was dream 3 of 6)

Waking-life context: This is a relationship with a substantial shared history, a period of separation, and a later reconnection. There is affection and some continued contact.

I had literally withdrawn, was completely far from thinking about him, talk less of his family members whom i had barely met despite background non-receptiveness: they are tight-knit.

Dream 3

Scene 1: The church and the seat

I entered a church through the central entrance. Inside, there were three main columns or sections, each divided into two halves, with sizeable passages between them. There were also aisles running along the far-left and far-right walls.

I initially walked toward the far-left side, close to the wall, looking for somewhere to sit. Someone who had entered with me had already found a seat.

On the far-right wall aisle, I noticed another person, possibly a church warden, who seemed to be indicating that there might be a place available. Before I went over, however, a particular sister appeared in the middle aisle, in the second half of the seating area. She raised her hand and signalled for me to come to her.

She deliberately moved inward from the far-right edge, rearranged the seating, and made room for me at the far-right end of a row. She then sat beside me.

Later, we moved to the first bench in the first half of the church, positioned in the middle aisle and facing the altar.

The sister began asking about my position with her brother. The atmosphere felt as though the matter had already been settled within the family. It did not feel like an interrogation or an acceptance test. Rather, she seemed to be orienting me, helping me understand the family and its dynamics.

I listened as she spoke about her family. I shared some things about mine. At one point, I explained that I am quiet and that my quietness should be taken as part of who I am, rather than interpreted as rejection or as something abnormal.

Scene 2: The river and the sister inside it

The dream shifted to a river.

I was standing on a paved surface, something like the pavement of a bridge above the river. I was not standing on the riverbank or leaning over the water. I was slightly behind a boundary, on the paved structure above the moving water.

The sister was lower than me, positioned in the middle of the river itself. She was talking to me, explaining something or orienting me. I remember being surprised that she was there, in the river, speaking to me from that position.

Then I noticed that she was inside a deliberately constructed enclosure.

It was made of cement. The outer structure rose to about chest height, while inside it was a smaller, darker enclosure that came to somewhere below the knee. The river continued flowing around the structure, but the sister was not being swept away by the current. She was situated within this constructed space in the middle of the moving water.

On either side of the river were broad stretches of short, natural grass.

The current was flowing in the compass direction toward me.

I was on the paved structure above the river, observing from a separate position, while the sister was situated within the river's flow, inside this defined enclosure, speaking to me.

Scene 3: Looking beneath the bench

In another part of the dream, the sister and I were outside, in a corridor-like space.

There was a small bench designed for two people. I looked underneath it and noticed some strange things. I remember something involving a rat and a situation that suggested conflict or trouble. The details were unusual and somewhat concerning.

The sister's response was not to investigate everything or become involved. Instead, she taught me to behave as though I had not seen what was underneath the bench and to avoid involving myself in it.

In the church, the sister summoned me, made room for me, sat beside me, and helped me understand the family context.

At the river, she occupied a defined position within the moving water while I remained on the paved structure above it. She spoke to me from her position, and I observed from mine.

Under the bench, the lesson changed. I was being taught that seeing something does not necessarily mean I must intervene, investigate, or take responsibility for it.

The dream seemed to move from being given a place, to receiving orientation, to learning discernment.

Its most striking contrast was between the river, which continued moving, and the cemented enclosure that gave the sister a defined place within it. She was in the moving system without being swept away by it. I, meanwhile, remained outside the water, observing and listening as she spoke to me from there apparently 'lecturing/teaching' about 'the family' i guess

2 nights in a row I’ve had a very similar dream. It’s a malevolent man who is trying to hurt me. He is vicious and enraged and I feel his anger towards me. I keep trying to fight him off, but he physically overpowers me. I then decide to use my wits and outsmart him without fighting back physically. It works and I manage to outsmart him. This whole time I’m screaming and calling out for help but it never comes. When I outsmart him and keep him restrained, I’m left with the sadness of feeling alone in my fight, but in shock I did it alone. It feels like my animus/shadow is the malevolent man. It feels like I’m finally accepting that individuation is transforming my perceived loneliness into the power that’s been within me all along. I used to feel that my introversion was too isolating and a deep negative flaw that needed to be fixed. Now, I’m starting to feel empowered by it and I no longer have shame about my introverted and guarded nature. Anyone want to give their interpretation?

Two years ago, this exact time I made a big decision that changed my life. Im not really a believer in Jung and these cycles and stuff anymore. I`ve just found that I`n not alone, just lonely. I`m finally doing something I should`ve done all along

I feel great

I’m on a solo travel mission right now, first time out of my home country, and I’m struggling to enjoy any aspect of my travel except for the pursuit of pussy. (can I say that here?)

To preface, I got into Jung a few years ago in a kind of multi layered synchronistic way that ties into this too. I lost my mind over an old teenage crush, after a few tough years in my early adulthood and what was likely a prolonged depression, she became basically the only thing in the world that could evoke passion and motivation in me. I spent a weekend at a friend’s house who happened to live on her street, and started getting whiney and somber and talking to him about what the odds are that he’s one of the few people I talk to from our decently large hometown (population of over 150,000) and how she lives on his street. She didn’t go to our high school and I’d known her from working together which makes that slightly more notable. Anyways I just kind of complained to my friend about how she’s the only thing I really want in life for a little bit, and then we exited his house to go out and she was directly across the street on a walk with her mom. It was a pretty long street and she lived on the opposite end. I was too scared to say anything, especially with the terms we’d left on, but this triggered I guess an upward but illusory spiral that this was God’s way of telling me we were connected by something deeper and fated. Then I started researching synchronicity and really took to Jung’s thoughts on it, and then got into him a little deeper to quickly stumble on the anima concept, which I really didn’t want to understand and tried hard not to for a while because I didn’t want this rare spark of purpose to crumble.

Anyways I eventually took it serious and understood that this is exactly what’s going on with me, and could easily trace it back to my unreliable maternal relationship and how desperate it’d made me for maternal like nurture since I was little, which made sense of many things I did all throughout my childhood and teenage years and now into my adult life. Its such a strange complex because it really feels existentially cruel to deal with such a thing, but I can also see how a culture of men who superficially pedestalize women to degrees they can’t tangibly continue or live up to breeds generations of avoidant women and desperate men, and I think that’s a big part of the western social problem going on today, and I absolutely recognize myself to be a part of that.

I’ve taken Jungian work seriously, I’m certainly no expert on it and wouldn’t say I’m devoted in any sort of religious sense, but I feel I’ve come much further on a path to being my own individual and making sense of life in my own almost religious way. I truly believe that if you meet life with good intentions and work toward orienting yourself to things beyond ego or culture or collectivity, that God or whatever you want to call it will have a much easier and smoother time guiding you through what you need to see and experience to carry out whatever you individually need to do and learn in this life in pursuit of some larger balance that encompasses more than the human mind can fathom.

Through this, I believe, I got blessed with the means and funds to travel on my own for a few months to a year, depending on how wise I am with my money (I’ve been none too wise thus far). I don’t know what my intention necessarily is, I just felt an almost desperate pull to leave my country. I’m now realizing that it was that same void for feminine nurture. I’m in South America and I’m truly under a spell from the women here. They’re certainly much more naturally outgoing and dare I say feminine than most of the women I’ve ever known back home, but now I’m basically projecting my anima onto a continent, and feel that I could only possibly find what I seek in life in the women here. But in my lonely moments, which are many, I just feel numb to all the beauty and cool things I’m experiencing. I’m on the verge of cutting my trip short and going home to start a trade, as I feel motivation and hunger again which I’d been desperately lacking back home, and I know that I just want to do this so I can have the means of building and providing for a family, which I think is a pure intention, but I’m also wary of getting consumed by it.

I just want some human reflections on this from people who are into this sort of thing. Am I fucked up? Am I on the right track? I believe I’m on the right path and am being shown what I need both internally and externally but it does feel like this void is possessing me everywhere I go and in everything I do, and I don’t want to repeat the generational patterns I see in both the men and women of my bloodline, which typically goes like men over extending themselves to a point they shouldn’t and the women becoming jaded about all men when we continuously fall short of what we promise out of desperation to fill voids.

Hi all, I wrote an essay analyzing David Bowie’s persona transitions through a Jungian lens. Specifically, how the Thin White Duke acted as a expression of his Shadow, and how his final video serves as self-mastery and psychic integration. It goes into the occult a bit too. I wrote another one specifically on Jung and Bowie but i thought the symbolism in Lazarus of the amina etc was striking. I think Bowie could be the Archrtype of that age. Once finished this are there any other artists you think I could look into i find it fascinating. Age??https://substack.com/@notesfromtheedge3/note/c-243662284?r=25lzql

I need help. Can anyone help me think this through or provide me with any ideas strategies as to work with this?

I am suffering from a complex that has been controlling my life on and off since a major violation in March 2025.

What happened was a pattern where I first was betrayed and then invalidated by people I thought I could trust.

After ending a relationship with a narcissist he threatened me. I afterwards turned towards a mutual friend of mine for support and what happened was he simply relentlessly invalidated me and not only that but stripped me or reduced my existance or emotional turmoil into nothing. He acted like this defender of this narcissistic social structure. I felt abandoned and cast out. I couldn't believe what happened at first still can't. Then later I searched for help in therapy where I was met with the same ordeal where the therapist in question basically abused followed by secondary violation of disbelief and institutional betrayal. That happened in March 2025.

Since then I have never been the same. Time passes by I am losing more of my sanity. This experience housed severe fracture in my psyche where this events have been walled off from me by dissociation.. I can't get through and all I am feeling is somatic pain and my own anger turned towards me.

What I understand so far is that this a protector part of myself that is been abused and turned onto me through manipulation. This part of my psyche feels colonized and not my own anymore. This is reflected in dreams like massive catastrophic alient invasions.

I honestly don't know how long I can take this any longer. I have been stripped of my human dignity and I cant seem to recover.

To have a strong position in order to work with this I know I need a strong Ego position where I am able to seperate my self of self from this complex. However this is very hard to do. It almost feels like I am not alive anymore.. like I am a walking zombie that on occasions wakes of from this paralyzing trance.

I have so much anger that was suppressed from those events that turns into automatic violent murder ideas those people to pay for what they did. I feel raped, robbed and psychologically abused where part of my psyche is simply colonized by whatever those experience were.

This is not me and I don't recognize myself anymore. I really don't know what to do anymore. I did a lot of shadow work but this shit just keeps comming back over and over again. Everything I did or the idea that there was progress just dissappears. It is constantly the same thing over and over again. I am sick and tiered of it already.

How do I even work with something like this? With a part of my own psyche that has turned against.. I need clear Ego seperation from it but I feel I cannot create this sealed Ego boundary from it and it just intruded in my space.. I am losing myself in dispair over this. I want it gone..

The atheist is not wrong to look at modern Western religion and call it a delusion. Seeing people pray to a God who remains silent in modern times yet was allegedly active in antiquity, they rightly label it foolishness. What the atheist fails to realize, however, is that this rejection often serves their own ego—granting them a subtle sense of intellectual superiority. Meanwhile, the religious believer feels an identical sense of moral superiority, looking upon the atheist with pity. When challenged, the believer frequently retreats into emotional defense rather than rational argument.

The tragic flaw of both positions is that neither looks inward. The atheist looks outward and finds an empty cosmos. The theist looks outward and mistakes an ego-construct—shaped by culture, upbringing, and centuries of dogmatic literalism—for the Divine. In truth, both stances spring from the same root: ego-isolation. Each enacts an illusion of separation. Under the traditional theistic view, you are an isolated creation set apart from an external God and your reality. Under the materialistic view, you are merely an isolated body of flesh bounded by your skin. Even with all its complexity, the human brain operates on underlying signals and unseen frequencies—much like nature itself. Until you awaken, the mind is essentially a computer running program after program. Just as The Matrix reinterpreted ancient Gnostic allegories for a modern world ruled by money, law, and anti-conscious systems it also had another meaning. The concept of living in a world where everything is run by computers has a deeper meaning that is not just talking about societies' tragic dependance and need for technology and machines: it is comparing the idea of a computer to the human brain. After all, the concept of the computer was created inside a conscious mind, that received the idea from the unconscious. The fuller the hard drive gets, the slower the system runs—and the harder it becomes to realize you are not the machine.

32 years old Jungian here. I feel like I dont really know anybody in my life anymore, everybody retreated into the bubble of their lives, we don't see each other anymore with friends, and if I did not have a girlfriend, I would be completely alone in the world probably. How would Jung solve this? I think I am at that EXACT situation that Jung describes in that quote.

I feel like I am missing something. In March I lost my job, mainly due to burnout. My 30+y.o. close friends all have their lifes mostly together, mortgage, children, house, cars, family, vacations, own businesses.

I am not unsuccessful, I have a nice sum saved up from previous jobs and projects, but I realize that when I have no job like now (hiatus), working introvertly (and passionately) on my own SW projects, then I don't really have any social contact at all, except with my girlfriend (together 4 years). I used to go to jiu jitsu where there was a lot of contact (haha), but even there I kept mostly to myself, only made about 2 shallow friends that faded after I stopped going after 6 years.

With colleagues I learned long ago not to make deep connections, because the good ones that I was friends with left the firm, or were fired, I stayed there like I was in 5th season of a show where everybody died, and I only got to meet the new hires. Hell.

I feel like I am missing something. Everybody tells me that my one quality is enthusiasm (about almost anything, I would call it adhd obsession), but at this point of life, if I were to break-up, I would be almost entirely alone. I even had a dream where I talked with death himself, and he told me to "Kick it off with her, otherwise you will drink yourself to death". I don't drink much, a glass a week, but this dream told me that without the anchor of my gf (imperfect relationship, volatile), I would probably feel deep into the abbyss (I am not that kind of person to self-harm, no worries). I used to have a LOT of dreams when I was alone, 250 dreams a year, I tracked them all and analyzed them. But since she lives with me, almost no dreams. The Unconscious does not speak to me anymore.

Anyway, I am not sure what to change, I think I have a high-functioning depression, in general, about life. I realize my depression sort of started when I finished college. The structure was gone, now I was on my own. I prolonged the status quo by living with my friends for another 5 years. After that I switched to living with my new girlfriend.

But the overall feeling is stasis. Like I cannot decide. I thought by 30 I will have children, mortgage, and just chisel away in that progress bar of life (game developer here..), but none of that has happened yet. I am standing at a crossroads I guess, and I don't want to go either way, out of some fear. I see my friends going further and further, actually LIVING their lifes, but I am still stuck, not liking what I am becoming.

Jung and the dark symbolism of Nazism

I. The Jungian premise

Carl Jung wrote an essay on Hitler titled ''Wotan'' in 1936. In the essay he makes several points about Hitler's psychology from a Jungian perspective and his critique blurs the lines between Jungian psychology and theology.

Jung thought that Hitler represented the ancient pre-Christic impulses of the German people. The tribal and pagan animisms of ancient Northern Europe were in a sense suppressed by the Christian compulsion towards charity and social cohesion. According to Jung, Hitler revived this ancient spirit of war and frenzy. Jung makes the point that Hitler was something of an empty vessel; a manifestation of the collective unconscious of the German people. Hitler represented the shadow of the German people.

This observation is remarkably similar in structure (although highly narrativized) to what historians such as Ian Kershaw have commented on Hitler. Retrospective pop culture such as almost every national geographic documentary ever made on WWII tends to focus on the personal character of Hitler. The implication is always that he was simply a bad guy doing bad things.

Ian Kershaw, one of the leading biographers on Hitler has a different interpretation in his book ''Hitler: 1889 - 1936: Hubris''. Hitler's political career began with a grassroots movement that manifested itself not in the halls of parliament but in the beer halls of the common man. Hitler himself began his journey to politics on the meager earnings of a half corporal and was altogether homeless before the war. His ability to muster his narrow rhetoric in baritone range was honed and evolved as he encountered perpetual feedback from persons in his audience.

This process shaped Hitler's systemic critiques. There was an evolution whereby he graduated from vague ramblings about Jewry and Bolshevism to specified and highly localized policy propositions. Hitler moved over a period of years from loosely complaining about the treaty of Versailles to being exacting in his proposal for abolition of ''interracial'' (at least in Hitler's mind) marriage between Germans and Jews.

That is a political level of analysis. What some historians describe as a ''functionalist'' perspective.

My own perspective on this is that multiple levels of analysis can be simultaneously true whilst remaining unobstructive to one another. If there is anything to be learned by Jungian psychology it is simply that the human person has a way of relating to dilemma in symbolically thematic motifs.

It may be true of Hitler that at the most superficial level of analysis (the political) his decision making and radicalization into a totalitarian is nothing more than a necessary transformation and explicable entirely through the lens of politics and power. Yet, at another level of analysis Hitler was also a man and a highly creative one at that. He had an internal voice in his mind that persuaded him of things. He had a sense of where to place limitations on himself and why. That sense seemed to be rigorously aligned with this political transformation at an almost spiritual level.

II. The dark spirits of Adolf Hitler

In the final years of the Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini the withered old machoist recounts a telling and somewhat fabled story about the musings of Adolf Hitler. In a private meeting at the Berchtesgaden Hitler had revealed to Mussolini that he was quote ''mystically and scientifically convinced of being possessed not by a demon, but by a spirit from Aryan mythological pre-history''.

Whatever credit can be attributed to the metaphysics of that claim; it is clear that Hitler entrusted a deep personal reflection to Mussolini. The question is what was this ''ancient spirit'' that supposedly gripped Hitler's psyche if not his very soul? Jung would suggest that it was the manifestation of Wotan. The ancient God of war. Drawing the marching bands of warriors to the thunderous beat of the drums on the war path.

One thing i find remarkable about Hitler is his seeming reflexive identification with the transgressive nature of his politics. Mussolini himself was staggered at a personal level at critical points in his regime. He left the 1943 Feltre meeting with Hitler a mess. Nervousness, depression, stomach ulcers. Hitler had refused Mussolini's proposal to surrender to the Soviet Union. That meant the end of Mussolini's regime. Even nearing his election as chancellor Mussolini suffered a month's long illness of some kind and withdrew from politics for a time. His preparations in anticipation of the coming civil war and the Allied invasion into Northern Italy had remained a swift escape to the borders of Switzerland.

Hitler's own escape was far darker and planned from the very beginning. He exclaimed to a colleague during the failed beer hall putsch that if he did not succeed that night then he would kill himself. Both Hitler and Mussolini ultimately did good by their promises and yet the irony is that Hitler's attempt was successful while Mussolini's was not.

III. The cryptic destructiveness of Fascism

The scholar of Fascism Robert Paxton outlined the stages of Fascism as the following:

1. Exploration

2. Rooting

3. Seizure of power

4. Exercise of power

5. Radicalization or entropy

The Fascist movements of the twentieth century (the Italian and German persuasions) both followed a remarkably similar origination and trajectory. They both began as something of a hodge podge of ultra-nationalist conspiratorial fringe groups that mobilized the remnants of the post-WWI dejected militias such as the Freikorps of Germany. They both utilized violence to achieve national popularity and foment a powerful political base (something for which both of their leaders were in hot water for at various times).

They both established an ultra-nationalist one-party state without free elections and with virtually no political oversight. They both oversaw the gradual transformation into a military-capable society which eventually participated in cold-blooded aggression towards the Western powers and launched a second world war. T

They both descended into hard totalitarianism and total mobilization as the war progressed.

However, The German variant of ''National Socialism'' developed into a fatalistic death cult which was radicalized to pursue death before defeat at every level of the society up to and including the leader. The Italian variant of Fascism proper merely dissolved into a mess of contradictions which ended the regime into an action figure of it's former expression.

The process of Fascism is an escalation into extremism. First, a gradual series of transgressive and ever more eye-catching coups and gambles. Then, descent into a doom complex and intense fatalism.

Violence leads to more violence which leads to paranoia which then leads to more violence. That produces what Umberto Eco described as the ''Armageddon complex''. It produces a Hitler waking up in the dead of night in a cold sweat fearing that an invasion into the Soviet Union was necessary to postpone a surprise attack. It produces a self-fulfilling prophecy of destruction and apocalypse.

''Germany will either be a world power or will not be at all.'' - Adolf Hitler.

In Wagner's (a particular favorite of Hitler's; he would get goosebumps at Wagner festivals that he attended regularly and was a devoted consumer of Wagner's mystic tales inspired of Norse mythology from childhood) fourth and final opera of ''The Ring of Nibelungen'' titled ''Götterdämmerung'' which means Twilight of the Gods in English; In this final act the gods refuse to submit and allow their old world to succumb to total annihilation.

In a sense, one could view all of WWII as Hitler's retelling of Wagner's opera. Rather than a renewal of the Earth anew without the influence of the Gods it featured a renewal of the Earth anew without the influence of the strong and willful as Hitler constantly harkened towards in his refusal to accept defeat.

IV. The origins of Adolf Hitler and Nietzsche's ''ressentiment''

Adolf Hitler began life as a sickly and depressive young boy whose home life had been a collection of deaths and rural outings in the outback of Austria. His trajectory through life was one failure proceeded soon after by another. Academic success, love interests, a stable home life, etc were all foreign to him.

WWI transformed Hitler from a down and out tramp into a political radical. He delved into all sorts of literature ranging from the occult to the scientism of the 19th century. Nietzsche was one of the few philosophers that Hitler indulged and it was reflected in his own will to power.

Nietzsche wrote that resentment was the motivation towards what he called a will to power. The sustaining life force and energy of every organism. Jung's perspective and motivation was that these psychic forces are intrinsically teleological as opposed to Freud's claim that they are causal. A drive moves a person towards a result and it is a spirit of it's own in it's sense. Jung thought the ancient Gods like Ares were manifestations of these drives (rage). One need look no further than consequences to infer motivation.

Hitler's motivation was a singular and narrow resentment towards the traumatic experience of Versailles. The collapse of the German empire into a skeletal remain and the destruction of German hegemony in Europe.

The structure of resentment is inherently antagonistic as a motivation. It requires an opposite. An opponent. Something or someone which constrains the very essence of being. Another remarkable property of resentment is it's intrinsically internal manifestation. A homicide is not an act of resentment but an act of rage. Resentment may precede a homicide but it is typically an isolated mental intrusion.

I classify resentment as broadly escalating into three categories:

1. Sententiacidal ideation

Common expressions of this are those of the alcoholic and suicidal person. A desire to kill one's own burden of consciousness. A desire to kill ideas. A resentment born of being burdened with an oppressive structural contingency such as an illness, idea, etc.

1. Homicidal ideation

A desire to kill another person. A spouse growing hateful over a period of years towards their husband's infidelity and gathering the courage to abruptly murder them.

1. Pancidal ideation

The destruction of persons and humanity as a whole. I think this is a common phenomenon with serial killers.

''I'd like to see a whole city burn down. The tallest building i can see'' - Ottis Toole, convicted serial killer.

The deepest expression of resentment. A total rejection of the communitarian aspects of humanity and a withdrawal into pathological and reflexive contempt towards any external or invasive breach of personal boundaries paired with an externally expulsive treachery.

''O, why should wrath be mute, and fury dumb?

I am no baby, I, that with base prayers

I should repent the evils I have done:

Ten thousand worse than ever yet I did

Would I perform, if I might have my will;

If one good deed in all my life I did,

I do repent it from my very soul.'' - Shakespeare.

V. The symbols of Fascism and the Nazi state

Hitler embodied pancidal ideation in his articulated gestures. All but himself was blamed for the catastrophic defeats that followed his war. A gross and vulgar use of language to not only accuse but to recklessly manipulate and foment hatred. Hitler identified with the auto-cannibalism inherent to civilization and identified it as a kind of justice. His gigantomania and fantastical imagination (swastika, volkshalle, etc) were symbolic of the eternality of civilization. Lacking borders. Larger than any one person. That is descriptive of the elemental participation of each individual and an inescapability. As Will Durant said a man takes his civilization everywhere he goes.

The essence of what i'll describe as the Hitler motif is as the following:

''Let us stoke flame and carry it with us to the edges of the Earth and in so doing we may watch with gleeful meander as it grows to be stoked with nothing left in it's path but our flesh and sinew.''

The second world war remains the greatest catastrophe in modern history and Hitler is arguably the single most influential figure in the 20th century. Relative peace followed his death and a prolonged peace for the Western world which has only recently been threatened by the Western decline in standards of living. A new generation of political violence has emerged to inherit the mantle of the older interwar generation.

With all of our technological prowess a war of the scale that Hitler pursued would spell the end of civilization as we know end and with good measure the end of the human species. One ponders what boyish fantasies lure men like Putin or Xi or Trump. One ponders what they've grown weary and tired of as they've collected a lifetime of being burdened with humanity. We hope and pray that they have ''sense'' enough to preserve the human race and yet if they are anything short of saintly i would say that the 21st century very well may be the final curtain of humanity.

I was doing some reflection on why I struggle to find relationships and I think that I am essentially a psychological sadomasochist.

On the masochist side, I enjoy spending time with girls who are flirty with a lot of guys but don't actually like them, and I still keep pursuing them despite getting rejected multiple times and being hurt by the rejections. It's gotten better but for some reason there is a psychological attachment to these girls always. There is both a goddess and witch projection upon this type of female interaction. I almost worship the girl and see her as evil simultaneously, bewitching me and controlling my emotions to love her.

On the sadist side, I unconsciously enjoy spending time with girls I have no interest in but who like me, inflicting pain upon them psychologically by manipulating them. The stronger the fondness they have towards me, the more I enjoy inflicting this psychological pain on them. These are often girls I would rather like consciously but the masochist side girls often result in a stronger pull over me.

I often end up pursuing the girls inflicting pain on me and reject or push away the girls that truly like me. I end up cutting off any ties with the girls that actually like me in fears of them losing the fond image they have of me, but in cutting off the ties it results in a worse case where they tell people negative things about me.

Also, I recently had a dream with a very interesting anima figure. I walked out of a hotel, and outside it was a dark back alley. I walk around a corner and find a women sitting down. She is wearing a long, yellow dress with a few large pink flower designs on it. She looks at me and stands up. We begin to talk, I don't remember what we were talking about. She is a short woman with brown, very short hair and black eye shadow covering the outer areas of her eyes in a circle. I want to leave, but she says "I love you," and I feel as if I am caught under a spell and I cannot leave. I tell her something along the lines of "No, I have to leave," I breathe meditatively a few times and feel the spell, wash over me and dissipate. I walk away.

Let me know what you think this dream could mean, and honestly any just general assistance in how to move past this strange stage in my life. I think it's been this way for a while, just unrecognized.

I weave a lot of Jungian themes into my art and poetry and articles. I remember first learning about Jung as a teen, and a babysitter introduced me to shadow work using art and imagination to the best way she could, and I remember being rapt with my inner world as I started exploring it. And to this day, I’m still exploring it, thread by thread, layer by layer.

Monsters aren’t under the bed.
They’re in you being fed or starved.
By actions, intentions and will.
Be still, look inwards.
See that the monsters on the outside, are also your monsters, depressed and hurting.
From years of repression and denial.
Beside all the torment,
Give that monster a hug
It will tug on your heart, tears down your face
And you’ll remember why it became a monster in the first place.
All it needed was love
From beyond and above.

I'm in my early 30s and I work for a university in the East Coast. Being in academia, most of my life has meant that I never really had time to date seriously. As a result, my experience with women is very limited. This fact induces quite a lot of shame in me. My parents never really had a great relationship. I have never once seen any intimacy between them. Furthermore, even as a prebuscent child, I remember having fears of being cuckolded and being very distrustful of women. This has not meshed well with the current dating hellscape.

I tried dating apps and attempted to meet women online, but I only experienced rejections. In all honesty, I would lying if I said I didn't hold any resentment from this. Especially from seeing how much success others were having. But being the intelligent, stoic and rational person I am, I generally didn't let it affect me or any of my interactions. I repressed my Shadow. That is, until these more recent experiences with a coworker.

She is around my age. A strikingly beautiful and incredibly intelligent woman. Definitely way out of my league. She shined very brightly and seemed to have great relationships with everyone around her. Yet, despite how well she treated everyone, it seemed like she would sort of ignore me. At one work event, in particular, she had extra food. I was standing in line with an older coworker and she offered him the food. He declined. She didn't offer me any.

There seemed to be several other occurrences like this. Normally, I would just ignore things like this and be non-chalant. But, with her, it was like I couldn't let go of this. At the time, I had been crying like once a week in my office from how my life and dating life were going.

How could this talented and beautiful woman, who life treats so easily, treat me so callously? She had rejected me...just like all the others. I began to anima project onto her. So, one time, as I was walking past her in the hall, I couldn't help but show my disdain and scowl at her. This is something I have never done and will hopefully never do again in a professional environment. But, at the time, it seemed like my shadow was done being repressed.

Ever since then, she became frightened of me. Shortly afterwards, I came to my senses and realized how idiotic I was. Even though she seemingly didn't like me, she was still an incredible person. The work she was doing and how she interacted with everyone was angel like. She has every right not to like me and every right to not interact with me if she doesn't want to.

However, after having that epiphany, it seemed like my anima projection changed. I would see her and immediately get suicidal thoughts. There would be goosebumps all over my body. I would want to be disintegrated and broken up into a million pieces.

That eventually calmed down and now we don't work near each other anymore, for unrelated reasons. But I still think about her. I also now understand how people turn into stalkers. I feel like I deeply love her and deeply despise her at the same time.

Has anyone experienced anything similar? Any advice or Jung passages on overcoming this and making sure it doesn't happen again?

So part of my idea for this issue, in very short, is to compare a hindu idea about how life is similar to a dream, to carl jung's talk about symbols in dreams--to claim that we must use creativity to ascend to a higher state of being by understanding the disguised symbols around us.

This is what I'm going with so please don't call it stupid... anyways...

I need two things.

A good chapter link to Man and his symbols which talks gives an example of a symbol in a dream which points to a truth when somebody is awake. - I started this book, but unfortunately it has been a long time and I got busy. I still really want to use this topic, though, and I believe it can work.

The second thing, I need a (Carl Jung) book suggestion for the idea that creativity helps us to understand our lives. What's a good book where carl jung simply talks about the help that creativity can offer to people mental health?

Basically, I need something to suggest that there are symbols in dreams, and another thing that suggests we can use creativity to understand those symbols. That second one does not have to strictly mention dreams. Just a book suggestion is okay for this. The red book? Active imagination? (or should I look for a different author?)

I greatly appreciate any help. Also, eh, please be nice...

I’d love to hear this group’s thoughts on this incredible documentary.

It’s part warning tale of what happens to a person who can’t handle a drop of their shadow element and it’s part immersive, hyper-intimate psychodrama that asks if it’s even possible to truly enter someone’s inner world.

​

In Jungian psychology, an unexpected accident often reveals itself as a form of salvation... 🚒

I rearranged the classic short Moving Day to make these profound psychological concepts something we can truly experience.

Through Mickey, Goofy, and Donald—in what appears to be a mindless slapstick comedy—we can completely understand what it looks like to be possessed by a psychological complex 👻.

We get to see the unconscious forces driving our "fate," and how a sudden disruption can actually be a saving grace.

We also come to understand the hidden power behind the things we intensely dislike.

Video Link 🔗

Mad Mickey 🔥The Great Declutter 🧹 Moving Day 🚚

https://youtu.be/BOOEP9_cA-o?si=GJD_m9p132cMAvLI

From a Jungian perspective, who do you think Jesus of Nazareth was?

This is a controversial topic, and it's one where the Ego is almost always the primary engine.

I think Jesus of Nazareth is a remarkably fascinating human being. He never sought wealth, comfort or power. Instead he knowingly traveled to Jerusalem where he preached a message that ultimately led to a brutal death. He never built an empire; he died a criminal's death. Yet, he stayed true to his word throughout his existence.

So who do you think he was?

For the past few months I've been working on 16Selves, a free Jungian cognitive functions test. I've posted it here a couple of times before, and a lot of the current version exists because people pushed back on the wording, spotted inconsistencies, or told me their results felt off. So thanks for that. It's given me plenty to rethink.

The thing I've struggled with most is telling someone's natural preferences apart from things they've just learned to do. That's come up in a few different ways, so here's where I've got to.

Preference vs. learned behaviour

If you spend your whole working day organising people, making decisions or managing other people's feelings, you'll probably get good at it. But being good at something because your job demands it doesn't make it your natural way of thinking. It's hard to write questions that pick up the difference.

My attempt at this is adaptive follow-ups. Everyone answers the same 48 statements first, covering all eight functions. The test then picks out your two strongest functions and asks 16 more questions about them and their introverted/extraverted counterparts. These try to find out whether something happens automatically, whether it's been consistent over time, whether it takes conscious effort, or whether it mostly shows up when circumstances require it.

I don't know yet if this actually improves accuracy. I'm also not convinced the line between preference and adaptation is always as clean as we'd like.

Questions that measure the wrong thing

A statement can sound like a perfect example of a function and still not tell you much. Say someone would rather watch a physical activity than join in. That could be about how they process sensory information. Or they might be shy, tired, physically limited, or just not into that particular activity. The same problem crops up with questions about organisation, relationships, decision-making and planning.

I've added optional examples for each statement showing how it might look at work, at home or socially. The idea is to get people thinking across different settings instead of answering based on whatever situation pops into their head first. But examples can backfire too. They might clarify things, or they might nudge people towards a reading I didn't intend. I'd like to hear whether people find them helpful or limiting.

Some statements are just easier to agree with

Each function has six statements. Three are about what you tend to notice, prioritise or respond to, and three are phrased the opposite way. That helps with people's general tendency to agree with things, but only up to a point. If one function's statements sound nicer, more familiar or more socially acceptable than another's, that will still skew the scores.

The test also hasn't been standardised against a reference sample. So there's no real basis yet for saying a high score on one function means the same as a high score on another. That's on my list.

Your top function doesn't automatically decide your type

All eight functions are scored separately. Then the overall pattern is compared against the function stacks for all 16 types. The test doesn't just take your highest function, and it doesn't work out the four letters independently. You get the closest fit within the model.

You can see how the other types compare too. But the percentages show relative fit within the scoring model. They're not the probability that a given type is right.

What to do when the result isn't clear

This is the part I've gone back and forth on most. If two types score almost the same, should the test just pick one? And what if changing a couple of answers flips the result?

Right now it re-scores your answers 200 times, each time randomly moving individual answers by up to one point on the seven-point scale. That shows how often the leading type stays on top. If it keeps changing, or the top two are really close, you get a two-way shortlist instead of a single type. There's also a separate outcome for when several types are basically tied.

A stable result can still be wrong, though. The simulations don't prove accuracy or tell you how likely your type is to be correct. They just show how sensitive the ranking is to small changes in your answers. I'd still rather show that uncertainty than give someone one type without saying how close the alternatives were.

Still plenty to figure out

16Selves hasn't been empirically validated. The adaptive questions, balanced wording, stack comparisons and stability checks are all things I'm trying out, and I don't know yet how much they help. There are still problems with the underlying questions and scoring that I need to look into. That's a big part of why I'm posting.

Two things I'd especially like input on:

• How would you tell someone's natural cognitive preferences apart from behaviours they've picked up through work, upbringing or experience? What would you actually ask?
• How do you write questions about cognitive functions without accidentally measuring unrelated traits or circumstances?

Also, do you find a shortlist of possible types more useful than a single answer, especially when your responses don't clearly separate them?

If you want to try it, just search 16Selves. It's free and you don't need an account. Everything is processed in your browser and your progress is saved on your device. Nothing gets sent unless you choose to submit feedback and results. There's separate cookieless analytics for site usage, but it doesn't collect individual answers or scores.

Whether you tried an earlier version or this is your first time seeing it, I'd love to hear what you think. Specific examples help most: a question that was hard to answer, an example that seemed misleading, or a result that didn't seem to match your answers. Most of the changes so far have come from people taking the time to explain exactly where things went wrong for them.