Magick & Jung: A Hidden Tap Root of Depth Psychology

Artist: Jake Baddeley

     Depth psychology is traditionally traced to Freud’s psychoanalysis and Jung’s analytical psychology. Shamdasani writes, “Through studying prehistoric, primitive, or modern societies, these disciplines attempted to surpass the limitations of individual psychology” (2003, p. 271).

Yet these 'modern' roots conceal deeper, occult currents with clear structural parallels and social disparities. Among them, Aleister Crowley, a lewd, prolific and enigmatic contemporary of Jung's, was developing a similar yet distinct system, synthesizing the same anthropological currents as Jung, including Alchemy, Shamanism, Astrology, Tarot, kabbalah, and many of the world’s mystery traditions.

     In Liber ABA (1929/1997) Crowley defined magic as “the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will,” a process not unlike Jung’s active imagination—an intentional dialogue with the unconscious toward Individuation.

Each engaged visionary states as legitimate methods of gnosis: Jung’s Red Book chronicles his encounters with Philemon, the wise inner guide (Jung, 2009), “beginning on the night of 12 November 1913, and continuing over the next several years, …” (Ribi, 2013, p. 11). 

     While predating Jung in The Vision and the Voice, Crowley records his communication, with Aiwass, a wise inner guide, which began in 1904 (Crowley, 1911), both figures, Phelimon, a Gnostic mythical symbol, and Aiwass, an Egyptian mythical symbol, symbolize Jung’s concept of the Self, the organizing principle of individuation, or Crowley’s “True Will.”

Their cosmologies also converge in their use of the term Aeon.

Crowley’s first mention of the Aeon of Horus represents a new epoch of consciousness, paralleling Jung’s 1946-1950 vision in Aion (1951/1969) of the transition from the Piscean to the Aquarian age. Each conceived human evolution as a psychic drama in mythic time. Ceremonial Magick and its potential systematic influence are a possible overlooked tap root of Jung's depth psychology.

References
Crowley, A. (1911). The Vision and the Voice. London: Equinox.

Crowley, A. (1997). Magick: Liber ABA, Book 4. York Beach, ME: Weiser Books. (Original work published 1929)

Crowley, A. (1972). The Book of the Law (Liber AL vel Legis). York Beach, ME: Weiser Books. (Original work published 1904)

Jung, C. G. (1951/1969). Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). Princeton University Press.

Jung, C. G. (2009). The Red Book: Liber Novus (S. Shamdasani, Ed.). W. W. Norton.

Ribi, A. (2013). The Search for Roots: CG Jung and the Tradition of Gnosis. Gnosis Archive Books

Shamdasani, S. (2003). Jung and the Making of Modern Psychology: The Dream of a Science. Cambridge University Press.