It does not surprise me in the slightest that no one has really said anything since my last post on this topic 2 months ago. Disappointing...
Honestly, the thing people miss when they name‑drop Jung in magical spaces is that his work
isn’t just psychology. It’s a
usable magical technology if you know how to handle it. The man basically reinvented half of Western occultism from the inside out without ever calling it that.
If you’re a magician, here’s what you can actually
do with Jung’s material:
Active Imagination = Invocation without the robes.
Jung wasn’t “visualizing.” He was entering a controlled trance, calling up an archetypal presence, dialoguing with it, and letting it speak back. That’s invocation. That’s pathworking. That’s inner temple work. And he documented the whole thing like a scientist who accidentally wandered into the astral.
Archetypes = the gods you already know, just wearing psychological names.
Shadow, Anima, Wise Old Man, Trickster:
these aren’t metaphors. They’re psychic structures with their own gravity. When you work with Odin, Hecate, Hermes, Lucifer, whoever, you’re interacting with an archetype whether you call it that or not. Jung just gives you a map of the terrain.
The Red Book = a magician’s grimoire written by someone who didn’t realize he was writing one.
If you read it with magical eyes, it’s basically a record of initiatory ordeals, inner contacts, ego death cycles, and mythic encounters. It’s messy, raw, and absolutely recognizable if you’ve ever done deep ritual or ordeal work.
The Black Books = the closest thing we have to Jung’s magical diary.
Not polished. Not edited. Just the raw encounters. If you’ve ever kept a ritual journal, you’ll recognize the rhythm instantly.
And the biggest takeaway for magicians:
Jung gives you a way to work with spirits, gods, and inner figures without needing to “believe” in anything.
You can treat them as autonomous psychic intelligences and the results don’t get weaker, they get stronger because you’re speaking the language the unconscious actually listens to.
From a magical perspective, Jung gives you:
- a map of the inner world
- a method for contacting it
- a way to integrate what you find
- and a framework that keeps you from getting lost in your own symbolism
That’s why I keep coming back to him.
That’s why I filled notebooks.
That’s why I still end up in “what the hell just happened” territory when I use his methods in ritual.
If people actually
read Jung instead of just quoting “shadow work” memes, half the magical community would level up overnight.
If anyone shows some interest, I can absolutely start a thread breaking down how to use Jungian techniques in ritual, ordeal, invocation, and identity work. I’ve got time this week, I'm at my cabin at the top of the Ozarks, alone with my dog in the middle of the woods, and can't spend ALL of my time fishing (just most of it, lol the browns are practically jumping in the boat) and this is one of those topics I can talk about until someone physically drags me away from the keyboard.
) talk about this stuff endlessly with anyone willing to dive in. Maybe I should start a thread on it? I'm sitting in a hospital waiting room, nothing else to do for the next hour and a half... the only reason I haven't already is this is heavy reading and a lot of people know about shadow work and invoke his name, but most people don't actually dive into his work for some reason. Disappointing, but also just makes it fun to explain it to them.
