Catafalque - Peter Kingsley
This book shocked me, thrilled me, disturbed me. Well, they say that art should disturb the comfortable, and after reading this book I was wandering around Fremantle for two days trying to digest it! And I can't think of a book that has had such a big impact on me for a long time.
Peter Kingsley takes us on a very deep journey indeed. One thing he does is focus on the time where Jung had his confrontation with the unconscious(and his encounter with the 'numinous' and with the sacred). At the time of the Red Book, and it reminds of how elemental and primal it was. Like with the mystics of all ages. And he also points towards, maybe, the domestication of Jung these days, in the Jungian Institute or School.
And then Kingsley also opens up this deep source of the Spiritual and Mystic tradition of the Pre-Socratic Philosophers(a mystic tradition at the source of Western culture). It is a revelation, in a way. I mean I didn't know anything about that, and when I was young, I couldn't relate to Christianity, and had to run off to the East and to India and climb up a mountain, to find some spiritual traditions. But what Kingsley does so brilliantly is show us the mysticism at the source of western culture.
I think everyone who is into Jung should read this book, but I would make two caveats. Firstly, Kingsley slags off quite a few people, which some people might find off putting. Secondly, and this is a spoiler alert, the ending of this book is deeply pessimistic(and the finality of Kingsley's pessimism could be one of the reasons i was wandering around Fremantle). It is a powerful book, but it is a huge flaw at the end of this book, in how it can't bring us out of its deep process and into a sense of renewal.
Catafalque - Peter Kingsley