{"id":11454,"date":"2024-09-16T06:56:04","date_gmt":"2024-09-16T12:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wakeupcall\/?p=11454"},"modified":"2024-09-16T06:56:04","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T12:56:04","slug":"jung-and-the-meaning-of-spirit-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wakeupcall\/2024\/09\/jung-and-the-meaning-of-spirit-soul\/","title":{"rendered":"Jung and the Meaning of Spirit & Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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Psychologist Carl Jung and a call to awaken our spiritual awareness. Photo via v2osk and Unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. ~Carl Jung<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I was reminded of the quote above while reading John Phillip Newell\u2019s latest book, The Great Search: Turning to Earth & Soul in the Quest for Healing & Home<\/em>. Newell<\/a>, a former clergy member whose area of expertise is ancient Celtic wisdom, similarly calls on all of us to \u201creawaken\u201d to the sacredness found within us and the Earth around us.<\/p>\n

Each chapter in The Great Search<\/em> features a look at several noteworthy people who made the inner-outer connection, including the Christian mystic Julian of Norwich<\/a>, the Indian philosopher Tagore, and the Scottish poet Nan Shepherd. But the person I found most fascinating was the famed Swiss psychologist and author Carl Jung.<\/p>\n

The chapter on Jung veers into talk of the soul and spirit<\/strong>. Newell does a masterful job of capturing the essence of Jung\u2019s teachings. Newell writes, \u201cFor Jung, the inner world<\/a> of the soul is as boundless as the outer world of the universe in its vast stretches of light and dark that reach endlessly through time and space.<\/p>\n

Before we look at Jung\u2019s thinking, a quick sidebar on soul and spirit. Jung (and Newell channeling Jung) often seem to use the terms interchangeably. My definition of the soul has been greatly influenced by Thomas Moore<\/a>, so I went to see what Google Gemini had to say. It seems that different traditions look at the soul-spirit connection differently, including:<\/p>\n