Reflecting Upon Jung's Answer to Job
Answer to Job was Jung’s most inspired work, in the sense that something beyond his ego and conscious personality was coming through him. Seventy-five years old and in the middle of a feverish illness, when he finished writing this book his illness was over. Jung describes how Answer to Job came into being by writing in a letter that it was like “the spirit seizing one by the scruff of the neck.” When the book, in Jung’s words “came to me,” he had the feeling that he was at a concert listening to a great composition, as if the text was a channeled work, dictated directly from the unconscious. Towards the end of his life Jung commented that he wished he could rewrite all of his books, but that he wouldn’t change a word in Answer to Job. After writing it, he wrote in a letter that “I have landed the great whale.” Jung felt that what he wrote about in this book was the unfoldment of “the divine consciousness in which I participate, like it or not.”
To say Answer to Job is a controversial book is an understatement of vast proportions—it goes directly against the traditional dogmatic view of mainstream theology. In this amazing book, Jung was interpreting the Old Testament psychologically—as if it were humanity’s dream—which is to see it as symbolizing the process of individuation as it was unfolding in the collective psyche of humanity. Jung interpreted the Biblical story of Job as symbolically representing an individual ego’s encounter with “the Self,” both in its conscious—and unconscious—aspects. As Jung points out, an individual’s individuation process directly impacts—and is the vehicle for—the Self’s incarnation. As Jung writes, “Self-realization—to put it in religious or metaphysical terms—amounts to God’s incarnation.”
The Book of Job is the pivotal point in the unfoldment of what Jung calls “a divine drama,” as it represents the transition from collective to individual psychology. It is the first part of the Bible where God (symbolic of “the Self”) engages an individual representing themselves rather than merely being a spokesperson for the collective. The underlying theme of the story of Job is the relationship between humanity and God. Psychologically speaking, this symbolizes the emergence of the continually unfolding relationship between the ego and the Self (the God within)—a dynamic which Jung referred to as the ego-Self axis. Jung realized that the story of Job was symbolically expressing a new relationship between God and humanity that was mirroring our ever-evolving individual relationship with the unconscious. As Jung tried to make clear, the Book of Job symbolizes a divine initiation process in which we’ve all been enlisted that potentially can expand our consciousness and introduce us to a radically new state of being.
As Jung writes, “Job is no more than the outward occasion for an inward process of dialectic in God.” In other words, the events that take place in the Job drama are the symbolic expressions of a transformative inner process going on deep within the collective unconscious of our species in which we—each one of us—are participating (knowingly or not). The reason why Jung wrote so passionately in this book about Job’s encounter was that it mirrored his own personal encounter with the unconscious. When asked how he could live with the knowledge he had recorded in Answer to Job, Jung replied, “I live in my deepest hell and from there I cannot fall any further.”
In Answer to Job Jung, to put it simply, was trying to come to terms with the dark side of God, i.e., evil. Jung wanted to know why Job was treated so badly—and wounded—by God (who, as the Book of Job makes clear, was secretly in cahoots with Satan). In this book, Jung attempted to show how we could find and connect with the light once we have fallen into—and become overwhelmed by—the darkness. Jung realized that the story of Job was symbolically expressing an underlying psychospiritual dynamic of the human encounter with evil that has special significance and particular relevance for the current dark time we are living through in the world.
As Jung realized, Job’s ordeal was not an expression of Job’s personal psychology, but rather, was set in motion by deeper transpersonal, archetypal forces in the unconscious. Job didn’t interpret the darkness and suffering that overtook his life in a personalistic way—feeling it was his fault—which would invariably lead to despair. Rather, Job viewed his situation—which is really our own—as potentially containing a deeper transpersonal meaning, which was a perspective that made all the difference. In Jung’s words, the events in the story of Job are such that “one cannot altogether suppress the suspicion of connivance in high places…. We must, however, keep an eye on the background of all these events.” In other words, something might be being revealed—in the background—through the darkness that Job was living through.
Breaking with traditional religious thinking, Jung pondered “the extremely uncomfortable fact that [in the Book of Job] Yahweh [God] let himself be bamboozled by Satan.” It is highly significant that in the story of Job, it is the figure of Satan that initiates Job’s ordeal. As Jung points out, Satan was the only one among the angels—the sons of God—who took the initiative upon himself to create obstacles, which, as Jung pointed out, were “necessary and indeed indispensable for the unfolding and completion of the divine drama.” Though on one hand Satan was God’s adversary, on a deeper level the two were intimately related and ultimately not separate.
Through his own personal encounter with evil, Jung became increasingly aware that evil—and humanity’s relationship to it—is playing a key role in the divine incarnation process. He realized that it clearly wasn’t God’s intention, if we could speak in such human terms, to spare humanity from experiencing evil. Jung writes, “We assiduously avoid investigating whether in this very power of evil God might not have placed some special purpose which it is most important for us to know.”
Jung realized that evil, if it didn’t destroy us in the process, was actually activating the latent, unconscious impulse in us to individuate, to become who we are. In Answer to Job, Jung wonders whether it was God himself “who egged Satan on for the ultimate purpose of exalting Job.” The ‘answer’ that Jung comes up with in Answer to Job is that the meaning and significance of Job’s seemingly undeserved suffering—the origin of which was Satan—was to catalyze Job so that he would develop a conscious relationship with—and realization of—the Self.
In theological terms, Job’s ordeal was symbolic of God’s attempt to bring awareness to Job (a figure representing the human ego) of God (i.e., the Self). This is why in Answer to Job Jung describes Satan as “the godfather of man as a spiritual being,” as it was evil itself that was potentially helping humanity (in this case, in the person of Job) to realize its divinity. Of course—in true quantum style—whether evil potentially destroys us or awakens us is a function of whether or not we recognize what it is revealing to us.
In this book Jung interprets world history as a dreaming process of a greater being (which we call God), whose origin lies outside of time and yet is manifesting—and revealing itself—in, through and over time. Jung writes, “the imago Dei (God-Image) pervades the whole human sphere and makes mankind its involuntary exponent”. In other words, an atemporal, eternal process is manifesting itself historically in, through and over linear time, which it did not only two thousand years ago, but, as Jung realized, events in our world today are the current reiteration—and revelation—of the same deeper archetypal process of the incarnation of God in human form. This time, however, instead of appearing in one man—in projected form outside of us—this is a process in which all of humanity has gotten drafted into participating.
Jung points out that it makes all the difference in the world—literally—if we unconsciously enact, compared to consciously recognize, the deeper mythological, archetypal process in which we are all participating. In Jung’s words, the difference between these two processes “is tremendous,” with consciousness being the determining factor. Speaking about the incarnation of God through humanity, Jung writes, “Although he is already born in the pleroma, his birth in time can only be accomplished when it is perceived, recognized, and declared by man.” In other words, our conscious recognition of the deeper process that we are participating in is the crucial act that literally changes everything. Instead of observing this deeper cosmic mythic process as a passive observer or as an intellectual idea, we find ourselves consciously participating in this process, which can be a truly revelatory—and transformative—experience. In Answer to Job, Jung is laying the groundwork for a new worldview, a new myth for modern humanity and our place in the greater scheme of things.
As Jung makes clear, if ever there was a time where psychological understanding is needed, it is now. The deeper mythologem that is literally—and symbolically—playing out and coming to light in our world is, according to Jung, “so obvious that we must be deliberately blinding ourselves if we cannot see its symbolic nature and interpret it in symbolic terms.” Seeing the deeper mythic archetypal drama in which we have found ourselves playing a role transforms our vision of events in our world from the literal to the symbolic. This individual process—in which we step into what Jung calls “symbolic awareness”— is to see the dreamlike nature of the world and is, psychologically speaking, known as the individuation process.
Contemplating the incarnation of God through Christ (who is the embodiment—the incarnation—of the light) as a dreaming process, Jung wonders where did God’s darkness go? When God became man in Christ—who was spotless in his purity—all darkness and evil were carefully kept outside of God’s chosen instrument of incarnation. As Jung imaginatively contemplates, if God had self-reflected during his appearance on earth two thousand years ago, “he would have seen what a fearful dissociation he had gotten into through his incarnation.” This is to say that God’s inner opposites—his light and darker parts—had become totally polarized in the figures of Christ and Satan. This deeper archetypal state of polarization, instead of manifesting through two adversarial figures like it did two thousand years ago, is now, in our current world situation, materializing in fully embodied form(s)—taking place not only within the individual human psyche—but through the greater body politic of humanity, which has become totally split into (warring) opposites.
Jung realized that “God has eternally wanted to become man.” In Answer to Job, Jung is pointing out that, instead of choosing a pure, guiltless vessel as his birthplace, as he did two thousand years ago—God now wants to become and incarnate through—the empirical, creaturely human being who unconsciously participates in—and is not separate from—the darkness of the world. As Jung realized, the closer this bond between God and man becomes, however, the closer becomes the danger of an encounter with evil. Because God wants to become man, the uniting of the antinomies that are intrinsic to God’s nature must take place in humanity, which is the very role that we—as living, breathing alchemical vessels—have been being prepared for from the beginning of our appearance on this planet.
Jung points out that in our current age God has granted humanity “the [Godlike] power to empty out the apocalyptic vials of wrath on his fellow creatures,” which of necessity places an urgent demand on our species to step out of our unconscious blindness and in Jung’s words, “achieve gnosis of the Divine” (i.e., consciously realize our true nature, a nature which interfaces with and is ultimately inseparable from the divine). In other words, humanity, to quote Jung, “can no longer remain blind.” It should get our attention that Jung again and again is pointing out the self-induced “blindness” of humanity that is literally at the bottom of the malady that is afflicting us.
Psychologically speaking, this process of healing our blindness represents a level of ego development in which the human ego becomes relativized and realizes (opens its eyes) that it is subordinate—and in service—to the Self. The individuated ego, instead of being unconsciously inflated—i.e., unknowingly identified with (and thus blind to) the Self—finds itself in an ever-deepening conscious intimate relationship with the Self, as our eyes become more and more opened to who we are (and who we are related to).
As Jung concludes in Answer to Job, the human ego’s (Job’s) newborn awareness of the Self (God)—including its darkness—requires in turn a response from the Self/God, which leads to the Self’s humanization and incarnation through humanity. This is why Jung considered Job’s experience as the precursor which laid the archetypal groundwork for, as well as the catalyst which set the stage for the drama of the incarnation of God through Christ. In Answer to Job, Jung was realizing that not only does the ego depend upon the Self for guidance and its very existence, but in a mutual process, that the Self needs the human ego for its conscious realization in third-dimensional space and time. This is why Christ is not only known as “the son of God,” but is also known as “the son of Man.”
Jung wrote in a letter that God’s birth in Christ symbolized, psychologically speaking, “the realization of the self as something new, not present before [at least in time].” Similarly, God’s further incarnation through the rest of humanity, Jung writes in Answer to Job, “means nothing less than a world-shaking transformation of God.” As Jung points out, when we descend into the depths of the darkness of the unconscious, we are bound to meet what he refers to as “the not yet transformed God.”
As he writes in Answer to Job, “A momentous change is imminent: God desires … to become man.” To the extent we are able to mediate, humanize and transmute these unconscious primordial energies of the “not yet transformed God,” we are participating in (if we allow ourselves to speak in such human terms) the on-going transformation of God by offering ourselves as the human vessels for his (and her) incarnation. This is what Jung means when he talks about the “continuing incarnation of God” and the “Christification of many.” Jung conceived of Christ as the prototype of a deeper primordial archetypal pattern that exists outside of time, the first born who is succeeded by a continually expanding number of younger brother and sisters (us).
“God,” Jung writes, “needs conscious reflection in order to exist in reality. Existence is only real when it is conscious to somebody.” This is analogous to how if light is not perceived it is invisible and might as well not exist. The very existence of light itself is as dependent upon being perceived as the act of perception is upon light. This brings to mind Christ’s saying in the Apocryphal Acts of John, “A lamp [light] am I to you that perceive me.” In other words, our conscious perception is a key factor in light (symbolic of the Self/God) fully realizing and actualizing its nature. In other words, the image of the Self is for all intents and purposes nonexistent unless it is consciously realized by us, hence the crucial importance of self—and Self—reflection.
Self-reflection, or what amounts to the same thing, the urge to individuation, helps us to recollect—and remember—the split-off, forgotten and unconscious parts of ourselves. “In our present catastrophic epoch,” Jung points out that self-reflection—which can be thought of the act of becoming conscious (i.e., waking up)—is “the absolutely necessary and only right thing.” As Jung emphasized again and again in his collected works, the act of self-reflection is “the beginning of a cure for that blindness which reigns at the present hour.”
Self-reflection will invariably bring us to the very edge of where our consciousness meets the unconscious, which, as Jung writes, “above all else” contains the very insights we so desperately need to be able to successfully navigate this dangerous moment of time in which we find ourselves. As Jung points out, the human act of reflecting upon ourselves inspires the holy and whole-making spirit to find a place within us to lodge itself and set up residence.
Jung writes, “God becomes manifest in the human act of reflection.” As Jung wrote in Answer to Job, due to our littleness and extreme vulnerability, there is one thing that humanity possesses that God, because of his omnipotence, doesn’t possess - the need for self-reflection. As Jung poetically expresses it, in the human act of self-reflection, God becomes motivated to step off his throne, so to speak, and incarnate through humanity in order to obtain the uniquely precious jewel which humanity possesses via our self-reflection. In other words, the act of deepening our realization of the Self has an effect upon the Self that we are realizing.
Our reflecting upon ourselves is the very role that we are meant to play in the divine drama of incarnation. Self-reflection is the best service we can offer to God—not to mention ourselves and the world. It should get our highest attention, as Jung elucidated in Answer to Job, that evil—personified in the story of Job by Satan—is the very catalyst for us to reflect upon ourselves. This brings up the question of who Satan works for—is he an emissary of the darker forces, or is he a secret agent for the light? The answer to this question depends upon whether we recognize what is being revealed by—and through—the darkness.
About the Author
A pioneer in the field of spiritual emergence, Paul Levy is a wounded healer in private practice, assisting others who are also awakening to the dreamlike nature of reality. Among his books are the recently released Wetiko: Healing the Mind-Virus that Plagues Our World, The Quantum Revelation: A Radical Synthesis of Science and Spirituality and Dispelling Wetiko: Breaking the Curse of Evil (North Atlantic Books, 2013). He is the founder of the “Awakening in the Dream Community” in Portland, Oregon. An artist, he is deeply steeped in the work of C. G. Jung, and has been a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner for over 35 years. He is a faculty member of The Shift Network.
