“This is a story about a nearly 100-year-old book, bound in red leather, which has spent the last quarter century secreted away in a bank vault in Switzerland. The book is big and heavy and its spine is etched with gold letters that say “Liber Novus,” which is Latin for “New Book.” Its pages are made from thick cream-colored parchment and filled with paintings of otherworldly creatures and handwritten dialogues with gods and devils. If you didn’t know the book’s vintage, you might confuse it for a lost medieval tome…”
From The Holy Grail Of The Unconscious, fab article about Jung’s controversial “new” book…Jung was a Leo btw….Mars goes into Leo for months on end and WHAM – he gets a hugely cover-priced but bound-to-be publicised & big-selling (or at least widely reviewed) book out.
I LOVE his work and ideas (he studies astrology, Tarot and the I-Ching as well as classical psychology) but this book is bloody well $320. No I did not expect to see it on a discount table at the mall but still…Some say that nobody should read it, that it’s too bats. But others that it will prove to be the most important book ever written. Thoughts? Can someone please read it and provide a quickie summary lol?
Tags: Carl Jung, Jung, The Red Book
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You bet your sweet bottom dollar folks are gonna buy this book. Okay, so it won’t be a Dan Brown best seller, but poor Danny, he’d be nowhere without Jung…
After seeing some of the artwork, it’d say it’s totally worth it. The images are stunning.
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OOOH! i will be buying this book. or begging for it for Xmas as i dont technically have any money. But it Lurve Jung. how exciting!
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i meant i lurve jung
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dang it… I WANT it like only a Taurean can…. book lust is now consuming me!~
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dont worry guys, google will steal it soon, scan it and have it on the web in no time !
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Not going to cut it for me, I like to touch.
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yikes, i hope they do, but they might do that thing where they only preview it.
too bad it’s so expensive, but the family seems to have been very sensitive about the contents. do you think they made the book so expensive to deter critics etc from buying it just to tear it apart? i mean, who would spend $350 if they weren’t pretty much convinced that they were going to love the book?
nsv
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nsv most book reviewers/critics get books supplied by publishing co’s. you get given the publishers proof, which isn’t quite the finished product, so you can read it and review before the book officially comes out. I used to get the same when i was a buyer at a bookshop many moons ago. best job ever…
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ooops – forgot to put my name to my comment… duh
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that’s okay, i was thinking not so much book critics as nay-sayers… but you probably have a point… maybe it’s just an expensive book to make, or they are crazy, or they figure people will pay…
if i make up an imaginary bookshop that i am a ‘buyer’ for would they send me the publisher’s proof for this book?? :p
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goes on to prove alien roots of god/essies etc blah blah completely razes current psych matrix to reveal us as the playthings of the alien fates what we are yawn can’t i have the movie first please please please
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I desire this book muchly………… Christmas list topper definitely!!! It’s 2 or 3 shifts’ worth, so rather doable methinks.
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This reminds me of the beautiful Peter Beard book which was so exclusive, mucho expensive, limited edition etc etc. And now there is a cheapo version!!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Peter-Beard/dp/383650877X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257499494&sr=8-1 seriously how GORGEOUS!!!
I just bought it for a friend’s wedding gift… and I want one too!!! Maybe as a graduation gift to myself if I can tear myself away from this beautiful page on to writing the 2 essays that are due monday.
Soz, this is a VERY rambling preamble my point is, maybe there will also be a cheapo version of this darling book!! -
I reckon this book is THAT expensive so as to deter folk who cannot afford healthcare from buying it. My theory is, you buy it, bring it home, read it and possibly never recover. Did Jung not express his own reservations about not quite being sure if he would have made it out of his altered states during inward journeys of discovery himself?
Perhaps is like a rabbit hole a la Wonderland? One may never come out again, or return quite the same again. Does it induce levitation?? So is better if only those who can afford having a Jungian analyst on hand should get it?
I would love to have this…but something tells me I will also need a week’s holiday to read it and majorly process….
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“So is better if only those who can afford having a Jungian analyst on hand should get it?”
Elitism perhaps? A pillow and meditation are free and yet the Tinsel Towners will be the first in line as of course they are used to the freebies or let me clarify, are used to things coming for free.
Do you think they have assistants to process for them?
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What a kooky story, it’s like something out of ‘The name of the rose’ and yes the actual 100 yr old book does look somewhat like a medieval tome, I’d sure like to get my hands on THAT!
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I read in the New York Times piece on its’ making that the crew working on the initial scanning of all the art kept having strange dreams during the course of the project. Buyer beware?
This is near the top of the list of books I will have someday in my fantasy huge, beautiful, personal library, along with the Atlas Maior from Taschen.
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well i just googled that atlas SM, its wiiild !!!
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Hi Medusa,
Is this book – similar to “LAL KITAB” – meaning the RED BOOK in Hindi ???
It was originally written in URDU language some 100-150 years ago approximately.
Some of its Astrological remedies are just amazing. You can download the translated version form here –
http://hitarthjani.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_details&gid=78&Itemid=42
regards,
Hitarth -
I love Jung, but lord he could waffle on. So I don’t care to read the Red Book but I’d love a look at the pictures. I didn’t realize what an amazing artist he was. Part of the expense of the book is undoubtedly reproducing the artwork.
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Read pages 1-4 of the link. Sounds like Jung took a trapse through his subconscious…….
And?
Sounds like at 38 years old he may have had an intense nearing Uranus opposition (would have to look at his chart to see when that transpired but usually late thirties early fourties) and in a nano sec his skull/consciousness split wide open and Pallas (from Zeus’ head) and a whole slew came tumbling through.
Interesting and wonderful that he did offer the psyche world so much as perhaps that was fulfilling his purpose but was he illuminated beyond what he found in the subconscious? I have not heard that mentioned anywhere about Jung, and so for all that he offered which I do respect, I feel he might be able to take one only so far.
But all roads eventually have a fork, do they not?
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Not to be a kill joyin’ bitch but what was new 100-150 yrs ago is not new today. Consciousness has changed and much with our pychology today that was not known then is common knowledge.
If the folks scanning Jung’s pix had experiences opening up something for them, then there is legit energy in the book creating an activation.
Perhaps that is the gift.
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