I have been analyzing this book for months now and as I am getting deeper and deeper, the more I realized that it is a deep, dark hole.
A deep dark hole, wherein you see yourself .
A part of you left unnoticed. A part of you who is hiding beneath your mask that you wear daily to be accepted by others. A part of you who does not know the right or wrong. A part of you that is.. just you.
I played the audiobook and interpretation of Liber Novus while cooking some Afritada and I want to share my insights about the chapter which is titled "Death".
"The trees become sparse, wide swamp meadows accompany the still, murky water, the horizon is unending and lonely, draped by gray clouds. A broad dead lake widens at their feet. We wander along the hills quietly and they open up to a dusky, unspeakably remote horizon, where the sky and the sea are fused into infinity.
Someone is standing there, on the last dune. He is wearing a black wrinkled coat; he stands motionless and looks into the distance.
I say to him: Let me stand beside you for a while, dark one.
He answered: “Stranger, you may well stand by me, if it is not too cold for you. As you can see, I am cold and my heart has never beaten.”
“I know, you are ice and the end; you are the cold silence of the stones; and you are the highest snow on the mountains and the most extreme frost of outer space. I must feel this and that’s why I stand near you.
Death: What leads you here to me, you living matter? The living are never guests here. Well, they all flow past here sadly in dense crowds, all those above in the land of the clear day who have taken their departure, never to return again. But the living never come here. What do you seek here?"
In this excerpt he saw death where the vast sea and the lands meet. He interpreted death as a dark cold being on a dim night. Jung says, he must feel "death". I wondered why we should feel such a "sad" feeling in our lives. Do we really need to think about death if we are still living the best of our lives?
What the "death" said was true. The living are never guests here, meaning it is not usual to think of one's death.
"Dark one, tell me, is this the end?"
"The dark sea breaks heavily—a reddish glow spreads out in it— it is like blood—a sea of blood foams at my feet—the depths of the sea glow—how strange I feel—am I suspended by my feet? Is it the sea or is it the sky? Blood and fire mix themselves together in a ball red light erupts from its smoky shroud—a new sun escapes from the bloody sea, and rolls gleamingly toward the uttermost depths—it disappears under my feet.
I look around me, I am all alone. Night has fallen. What did
Ammonius say? Night is the time of silence."
As he stays with "death", he saw the living, standing at the wide sea, standing still before it dissolves into a cloud of mist. Never he realized that it was coming to him.
"The path was wide and what was to come was awful. It was the enormous dying, a sea of blood. From it the new sun arose, awful and a reversal of that which we call day. We have seized the darkness and its sun will shine above us, bloody and burning like a great downfall."
I interpreted this passage of the book as accepting "death". Accepting the coldness and solitude of it. The silence. The solitude. The "sun" represents the living side of life, after he accepted the fate of "death".
"Did you ever think of the evil in you? Oh, you spoke of it, you mentioned it, and you confessed it smilingly, as a generally human vice, or a recurring misunderstanding. But did you know what evil is, and that it stands precisely right behind your virtues, that it is also your virtues themselves, as their inevitable substance?"
I realized, do people accept their bad side? Or they are just justifying the execution of it? Do they accept it as a "response" to an action? Or people accept it because it is a "part" of them? Do people think about it whenever they unleash a side of them that most will not understand? Or will they feel sorry, because the society does not align on how they react?
I was confused because the next paragraph talks about morality of right and wrong which is far from the first topic, which is death. But then, Jung explains it in the next part; (A long excerpt ahead)
"We need the coldness of death to see clearly. Life wants to live and to die, to begin and to end. You are not forced to live eternally, but you can also die, since there is a will in you for both. Life and death must strike a balance in your existence. Today’s men need a large slice of death, since too much incorrectness lives in them, and too much correctness died in them. What stays in balance is correct, what disturbs balance is incorrect. But if balance has been attained, then that which preserves it is incorrect and that which disturbs it is correct. Balance is at once life and death. For the completion of life a balance with death is fitting. If I accept death, then my tree greens, since dying increases life. If I plunge into the death encompassing the world, then my buds break open. How much our life needs death!"
"Joy at the smallest things comes to you only when you have
accepted death. But if you look out greedily for all that you could
still live, then nothing is great enough for your pleasure, and the
smallest things that continue to surround you are no longer a joy."
"If you accept death, it is altogether like a frosty night and an anxious misgiving, but a frosty night in a vineyard full of sweet grapes. You will soon take pleasure in your wealth. Death ripens. One needs death to be able to harvest the fruit. Without death, life would be meaningless, since the long-lasting rises again and denies its own meaning. To be, and to enjoy your being, you need death,
and limitation enables you to fulfill your being"
TL:DR Accept death. Accept your evil side. Accepting that you live, and you will die. It will put balance in your life. One will not be satisfied if he consumes all the pleasures in his life without accepting the counterpart. All things must be in balance. Life and death. Pleasure and suffering. I think a good life should be "lived" with such balance of all things around us.
You can accept death without preparing your funeral in advance. You can accept your evil side without showing consideration to others.
I am always fascinated by Jung's dreams and its interpretations. He forces you to be focused and to think deeply. To think of your inner self. Your inner self that is mostly forgotten because you always wear your "mask" to belong. His books will always remind me to be rational on things.
Masakit lang talaga sa ulo at nakakatulala, honestly.
