Religious but Not Religious (Highlights)

In this episode:
I present some highlights and excerpts from a recording of a recent talk that I gave on my book, Religious but Not Religious: Living a Symbolic Life.

Let's make this a conversation:
Do you have a comment or  question about this episode, or about something you would like me to address in a future episode? Please contact me on Facebook (facebook.com/jungiananalyst) or Twitter (@Jason_E_Smith).

For more on living a symbolic life:
Please check out my book, Religious but Not Religious: Living a Symbolic Life, available from Chiron Publications.

Sources for quotes and more:

1. “Now, we have no symbolic life, and we are all badly in need of the symbolic life. Only the symbolic life can express the need of the soul — the daily need of the soul..." ~ C.G. Jung from The Symbolic Life in 'Collected Works, vol. 18.'
2. "Do we ever understand what we think? We only understand that kind of thinking which is a mere equation, from which nothing comes out but what we have put in..." ~ C.G. Jung from The Stages of Life in 'Collected Works, vol. 8.'
3. "All teems with symbol; the wise man is the man who in any one thing can read another." ~  Plotinus
4. "The religious symbol is used against the perils of the soul. The symbol functions as a sort of machine, one could say, by which the libido is transformed...." ~ C.G. Jung in  'Seminar on Nietzsche's Zarathurstra.'
5. “The individual, who hitherto has been caught in his personal entanglements, is then confronted with a problem which no longer represents solely his personal conflict but gives expression to a conflict that it has been incumbent on man to suffer and solve from time immemorial." ~ Jolande Jacobi in 'Complex/Archetype/Symbol.'
6. "Among all my patients in the second half of life -- that is to say, over thirty-five -- there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life...." ~ C.G. Jung from Psychotherapists or the Clergy in 'Collected Works, vol. 11.'
7. “The decisive question for man is: Is he related to something infinite or not? That is the telling question of his life. Only if we know that the thing which truly matters is the infinite can we avoid fixing our interest upon futilities, and upon all kinds of goals which are not of real importance.” ~ C.G. Jung in 'Memories, Dreams, Reflections.'

Music:
"Dreaming Days," and "Slow Vibing" by Ketsa are licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0