Observations placeholder
Jung, C G - Black and white magican
Identifier
000963
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Not Jung's dream but his interpretation
A description of the experience
The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious – C G Jung
An excellent example of this is the dream about the white and black magicians, which tried to compensate the spiritual difficulties of a young theological student. I did not know the dreamer myself, so the question of my personal influence is ruled out.
He dreamed he was standing in the presence of a sublime hieratic figure called the "white magician," who was nevertheless clothed in a long black robe. This magician had just ended a lengthy discourse with the words "And for that we require the help of the black magician."
Then the door suddenly opened and another old man came in, the "black magician," who however was dressed in a white robe. He too looked noble and sublime. The black magician evidently wanted to speak with the white, but hesitated to do so in the presence of the dreamer. At that the white magician, pointing to the dreamer, said, "Speak, he is an innocent."
So the black magician began to relate a strange story of how he had found the lost keys of Paradise and did not know how to use them………
The compensation certainly did not fall out as the dreamer would wish, by handing him a solution on a plate; rather it confronted him with a problem … which life is always bringing us up against; namely the uncertainty of all moral valuation, the bewildering interplay of good and evil and the remorseless concatenation of guilt, suffering and redemption