Carl Jung and the I-Ching (Book of Changes)

Introduction: Carl Jung’s Split from Sigmund Freud

Jung’s Search of Paradigm Support in the West

Jung’s Discovery of Richard Wilhelm’s I-Ching Translation

Jung’s Affinity with East Asian Philosophy and Religion

The I-Ching Intuitive Wisdom

Jung’s Application of the I-Ching

Eastern Thought Resonated with Jung’s Psychotherapy

Conclusion

References

Carl Jung

Introduction: Carl Jung’s Split from Sigmund Freud

Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, born in the 19th century, received his education, training and experience during the Freudian revolution in Europe. In fact, Freud had groomed him to be his successor. They had a relationship-breaking fall out when Jung refused to subscribe to Freud's extremely atheistic and hostile attitude toward God. Jung's psychotherapeutic techniques had been leading him further and further into the belief that we are fundamentally spiritual in our nature and that the purpose of our life is spiritual development and integration.

Jung’s Search of Paradigm Support in the West

At the time of Jung's split with Freud, he found himself without any support in the West for his views on spiritual integration and development. Western psychology and philosophy, as well as Western religion, was profoundly influenced by the thought of Darwin and the impact of the scientific revolution on religious and psychological thought. Jung discovered a more intuitive approach to finding our spiritual center and psychological health rather than a solely scientific approach. That, as a trained scientist and a medical doctor, put him at odds with the Western medical profession which refused to consider the spiritual basis for our psychological health.

Jung’s Discovery of Richard Wilhelm’s I-Ching Translation

Jung looked far and wide for support of his paradigm of spiritual growth through intuition but felt entirely unsupported by Western psychology and philosophy . That changed when he made the discovery of the I-Ching through the translation work of Richard Wilhelm. Jung's introduction to Wilhelm's translation of the I Ching in 1949 laid out the path that he followed, finding support for his intuitive integrative approach to psychology in the I-Ching. Jung explained that, in his own scientific tradition, reason, the scientific method, and evidence were the foremost criteria for pursuing truth. In turn all the psychotherapy of his counterparts in the West were based upon those pillars.

Jung’s Affinity with East Asian Philosophy and Religion

Yet Jung found a path to truth through psychotherapy that superseded those principles and that constituted an intuitive path to truth that dwells within our soul, the manifestation of our soul and the integration of our anima and animus, masculine and feminine, natures. He also discovered the power of the Collective Unconscious mind

shared by the human community everywhere and at all times. Since he understood the fundamental nature of reality as spiritual, he did not see life and time defined by death. The community of the collective unconscious extends and embraces all those who have lived, are living and will live. The role of Archetypes in the discovery and development of our unconscious mind, especially through the technique of manifesting Mandalas, also played a fundamental role in his psychotherapy.

The I-Ching Intuitive Wisdom

In the I Ching, especially as translated by Richard Wilhelm, Jung found a vast body of intuitive wisdom that could be used through divination to lead us into the truth in this moment of change. That body of wisdom began long before written history in China through the use of yarrow sticks and turtle shells to divine answers to questions about courses of action. Approximately 5000 years ago the practice of divination through the I

Ching had many magical qualities to it and was often misused by practitioners who prophesied motivated by money and power. The body of wisdom of the I Ching went through a massive revision during the time of Confucius about 2500 years ago. In fact, Confucius played a key role in the profound revision of the I Ching. All association of the I Ching with magic and profit had been eliminated and a pure body of intuitive wisdom remained, a profoundly spiritual commentary.

Jung’s Application of the I-Ching

Jung found the practice of tossing coins or yarrow sticks and coming to a determination of 6 hexagrams out of 64, guided by a divine inner force, had profound messages for the practitioner when guided by the Book of Changes. The possible combination of 6 hexagrams out of 64 provides enormous and astronomical results in its calculation. In addition to each unique hexagram, the order of those 6 hexagrams has a great part to play on the interpretation of the reading. That coupled with a system for determining strong and weak lines as an even more sophisticated twist to the interpretation in answer to the question.

Jung knew that he faced tremendous skepticism in the West that the divination system of the I Ching would be compared to the Ouija board, Tarot cards and Astrology. Although Tarot cards and Astrology have tremendous spiritual reasoning supporting their readings, the I Ching is an entirely different class of divination. To prove the truth and intuitive power of the Book of Changes to his Western audience, Jung proposed a question that he would address through his tossing of the coins and receiving a reading. The question he asked is: How would Wilhelm's translation of the I Ching be received by the new audience in the West? Although we don't have time to go through in detail the reading that Jung received from the coins tossed, we learn much about Jung's appreciation for the wisdom of I Ching through that reading. Bottom line, the West would find great enrichment through Wilhelm’s translation of the wisdom of the I Ching.

Eastern Thought Resonated with Jung’s Psychotherapy

Overall, Jung found much resonance with Eastern thought to support his psychotherapeutic theories and practice of integration. Richard Wilhelm also translated the Secret of the Golden Flower, which Jung also wrote an introduction to. And most tellingly Jung delivered the eulogy address at Richard Wilhelm's memorial service in which he declared that the translation by Wilhelm had provided him with a firm grounding to his own thought and a paradigm that he can work with. Jung is also a friend of Buddhism and Taoism but nothing can compare to his great love and adoration of the Book of Changes.

Conclusion

In this brief presentation I have attempted to show how Carl Jung presented a unique, counter-intuitive approach to Western psychology and religion. Whereas Western psychology has prided itself mainly in taking a scientific approach to the mind, the body and its interaction, and discounts the existence of an eternal spirit, Carl Jung has presented and forwarded an approach that leads to the discovery and development of our eternal spirit through intuitive wisdom. His paradigm is at loggerheads with Freud's view that we are solely comprised of the Id, the SuperEgo and the Ego (all physical psychic forces), and that the belief in the eternal spiritual God, and also internal eternal spirit, is an illusion that is harmful and counterproductive to psychological health.

Going forward, I believe that Carl Jung’s thought, the I-Ching and Eastern thought, when properly used with a respect for the Western scientific tradition and also as a profound intuitive tool of truth that dwells within each of us, has the capacity to create a new paradigm for the West that will serve as the fundamental basis for integrated medicine and integrative philosophy, psychology and religion going forward in the global community.

References

Richard Wilhelm, The I Ching or Book of Changes (Bollingen Series). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, renewed 1977. Foreword by Carl Jung.

Wilhelm, Richard, and C. G. Jung. The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life. 1929.

Jung, C. G. 1995. Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Translated by Richard Winston and Clara Winston. London, England: Fontana Press.

Jung, C. G. (1969). Psychological types. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung: Vol. 6. Psychological types (2nd ed., pp. 1-692). Bollingen Series XX. Princeton University Press.

Daniel Davies received a PhD from Drew University where he had the good fortune to study as a graduate assistant with Professor Thomas C. Oden, a leading voice in the dialogue of religion and psychology. His career of over thirty years included most recently serving as president  of Wongu University of Oriental Medicine in Las Vegas, where he first encountered the I-Ching in a significant way as professor of Asian Philosophy and Psychology. His interest in Carl Jung began at the University of Washington where he credits Jung for leading him out of the world of atheistic psychology shaped by Skinner and Freud onto the path of religion and psychology that he pursues to this day. Currently he is an Adjunct Associate Professor in Humanities for the University of Maryland Global Campus while continuing to pursue writing and publishing interest.